Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) dominated day two of medal racing at the International Canoe Federation Junior and Under 23 Canoe Sprint World Championships in Bulgaria on Saturday.
AIN paddlers won five of the 14 gold medals on offer, while Germany added another three golds to the five it won on Friday, and China took its overall gold medal tally to five with another two titles in Plovdiv.
Brazil, Australia, Poland and Hungary each picked up a gold medal.
The AIN gold rush began in the women’s junior K2 500, with Maryia Misiuchenka and Darya Kliuchynskaya picking up the honours. Misiuchenka added another gold later in the morning, in the junior women’s K1 200.
The final two golds came in the junior and the U23 mixed C2 500. Elizaveta Iakovleva and Aleksandr Mineev took top honours in the juniors, and Aleksandr Bots and Ekaterina Shliapnikova won the U23 title.
China won its two gold medals in the C4 women’s junior and U23 500 races, while Alex Borucki picked up Poland’s solitary gold in the men’s junior K1 500.
Moritz Willi Florstedt won the first of Germany’s three gold, saluting first in the men’s U23 K1 500, while Tillmann Sommer and Linus Bange won the men’s K2 U23 500. Chelsea-Lynn Roussiekan won a hard-fought gold in the women’s U23 K1 200, edging out Australia’s Natalia Drobot.
Drobot had earlier teamed up with Kailey Harlen to win Australia gold in the women’s U23 K2 500.
Mateus Nunes Bastos Dos Santos won gold for Brazil in the men’s C1 1000 junior final, and Peter Samu and Zalan Imre Hidvegi added to Hungary’s four gold medals from Friday with victory in the men’s K2 junior 500.
Find all the results and schedule at the official event page.
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