A dead heat in the women’s under 23 K1 500 and an exciting new race format were among the highlights on the final day of competition at the International Canoe Federation Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships in Bulgaria on Sunday.
Spain was the most successful nation on the final day in Plovdiv, picking up four gold medals, while Hungary and China both earned three more gold medals. Overall, Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) had the most success, winning 10 gold medals.
Brazil’s Mateus Nunes Bastos Dos Santos added the junior C1 500 title to the C1 1000 and C2 500 crowns, while Canada’s Alex Borucki won his second individual gold, taking victory in the men’s junior K1 1000
The judges could not split the first two competitors across the line in the women’s U23 K1 500, eventually ruling that Hungary’s Eszter Rendessy and Czechia’s Barbora Betlachova had recorded the same time.
Hungary also won gold in the women’s U23 C1 500 (Reka Opavszky) and the mixed K1 5000 U23 relay (Emese Kohalmi and Csanad Sellyei).
Spain’s Pablo Crespo and Manuel Fontan got their country to the top of the podium in the men’s U23 C2 1000, before teammate Martin Jacome Couto triumphed in the U23 C1 500. There was double gold for Spain in the new mixed 5000 metre relays, with Daniel Grijalba and Ana Cantero winning the U23 C1, and Victor Pizarro and Yaiza Novo the K1 junior gold.
Less than one second split the first three placegetters in the men’s U23 K1 1000, with American Jonas Ecker eventually being given the judges nod.
There was double gold on the final day for China’s Meisi Liu, firstly in the women’s junior C1 200, and then in the 500. China also won gold in the mixed junior C1 5000 through Xiubiao Zhong and Xiao Chen.
AIN paddlers won gold in the women’s C1 U23 200 (Ekaterina Shliapnikova) and the junior C2 men’s 1000 (Hleb Dziomin and Ivan Kazlou)
Germany’s Caroline Heuser posted one of most impressive wins of the day, taking gold in the women’s K1 500 junior by almost three seconds.
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