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On Wednesday, Alena Marx (SUI) could hardly believe she was crowned European Champion in kayak cross individual race, which was a medal race for the first time in history. Only a couple of hours later she again showed her excellence in Kayak Centre Tacen near Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia, and won her second gold medal of this European Championships.

 

The 23-year-old paddler never won a medal at either senior European or World Championships, now she has two, and the most shiny ones. Her biggest individual success so far was bronze medal in kayak cross at last year's U23 World Championships in Krakow.

 

"It was incredible, it was really stressful. I was very tense, but it worked out well. I am very happy," said the double European Champion. She thinks she won her race already at the beginning, "I think it was the ramp. I was pretty fast there and the first down, I was in front and after that I had distance to the others."

 

In Thursday's final on the Sava River, Marx left behind Camille Prigent from France and Nikita Setchell from Great Britain, who were second and third respectively. Italian Stefani Horn finished just below the podium positions in fourth place. Prigent also won her second medal of the Championships, after she finished third on Wednesday in Kayak Cross individual event.

 

While Marx will receive her first senior Championships medals in her career at a ceremony on Saturday, British kayaker Joseph Clarke is used to winning the highest positions at the biggest international events. 31-year-old Olympic Champion from Rio de Janeiro, won the last three consecutive World Champion titles in kayak cross (2021, 2022, 2023), but still waited for the first kayak cross gold medal at European Championships. So far, he had two kayak cross bronze medals from Europeans in 2021 and last year's European Games in Krakow.

 

Today, Clarke won the European Champion title ahead of Jan Rohrer from Switzerland and David Llorente from Spain, while French representative Benjamin Renia finished the race in fourth position.

 

"It means a lot, having World titles it's always nice to back it up with the European titles. Especially this year, being the biggest race of the season apart from the Olympic Games. It's good to have a season off to a great start," were the first words of the new kayak cross European Champion.

 

On Friday, there will not be any competitions held due to expected high water level of Sava River. The championships will continue on Saturday and Sunday with slalom heats and finals in individual events and team races in all four events.

 

Saturday's and Sunday's heats will be livestreamed on Canoe Europe Youtube Channel, while finals and team events will be live at Eurovision Sport platform.