Germany celebrated back-to-back kayak four 500m titles as their men gained revenge over Hungary before their women came out on top at the International Canoe Federation Canoe Sprint World Cup in Poznan, Poland.
Missing out on gold by just 0.21 at the opening World Cup in Szeged last weekend, Germany responded in superb style, showing why they are the reigning Olympic and world champions.
It was an even tighter finish, with the Germans beating the Hungarians by a mere 0.13 to take the title.
The victory was Germany’s first with Anton Winkelmann in the boat as he joined multiple Olympic gold medallists Max Rendschmidt, Max Lemke and Jacob Schopf to triumph in 1:21.34.
“It was a really close result again, we were just ahead of the Hungarian K4,” said Lemke.
Click here for start lists and results from Poznan
“It’s a good step forward for us working together as a team and there is still a lot we can improve and we are looking forward to working on these things over the next weeks.
“A second and a first place is a good start.
“We have had worst starts before and with a new guy in the team there is still a lot of adjustment for him as it’s his first international K4 racing.
“I think he’s pretty happy to be sitting in the boat and there is still a lot for us to learn as a team.”
Bence Nadas, Zalan Imre Hidvegi, Hunor Tamas Hidvegi and Gergo Zoltan Keller had to settle for silver in 1:21.47.
After a false start, the Polish team of Jakub Stepun, Jaroslaw Kajdanek, Valerii Vichev and Slawomir Witczak had an issue with their boat but refused to let that derail them as they clinched bronze in 1:21.96.
There was more joy for Germany when their women’s K4 crew emerged victorious after seeing off home favourites Poland.
It was a thrilling race with Germany and Olympic champions New Zealand separated by just 0.01 at the halfway point.
The German team of Paulina Paszek, Jule Marie Hake, Pauline Jagsch and Hannah Spielhagen proved too strong over the final 100m, crossing the line first in 1:32.67.
“We are very happy with this," said Hake.
“We feel better and better race by race, starting in Szeged with a poor performance but in the semi-finals we got better and final we got better and now we had the best race so far.
“We are pretty thrilled with this performance.”
Poland’s Karolina Naja, Sandra Ostrowska, Julia Olszewska and Adrianna Kakol delivered silver in 1:32.91.
There was a real battle for bronze with the Australian crew of Kailey Harlen, Natalia Drobot, Alexandra Clarke and Claudia Bailey beating New Zealand by 0.05 with a time of 1:33.05.
Hungarians Agnes Anna Kiss and Bianka Nagy backed up their victory in Szeged last week with success in the women’s canoe double 500m in Poznan.
The two Canadian pairings of Katie Vincent and Zoe Wojtyk and Sloan MacKenzie and Sophia Jensen pushed hard, while China’s Mengya Sun and Yanan Ma were also in the mix.
But Kiss and Nagy in their black and white boat overcame their rivals, winning in 1:51.87.
Vincent and Wojtyk sealed silver in 1:52.60, with Sun and Ma bagging bronze in 1:53.37.
“We are very happy to get first place again,” said Kiss.
“It was a very hard race as we were a bit tired after the last World Cup in Szeged, but we did our best.
“The wind was very strong and the water was a bit wavy at the end but we had a great finish to win this race.”
Full coverage of the ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Cup can be viewed on the Planet Canoe YouTube channel.
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