Heats in eleven wildwater sprint events were held today on the Soča River and Czech Republic and France each won in four of today's events.
In junior part of the competition Tereza Kneblova set the fastest times in women's kayak and canoe heats. In kayak Greta Zietz from Germany and Helena Domajnko from Slovenia won second and third place respectively, while in canoe French Laura Fontaine crossed the finish line with second fastest time of the day and Anna Retkova from Czech Republic was third.
In men's junior canoe Czechs again occupied the top three positions. Matej Vanek was in front of Martin Kratochvil and Karel Rasner. Rasner and Vanek joined forces in C2 to win in junior heats, ahead of their teammates Salaj and Smakal, while French duo Tostain - Payen finished third.
The only non-Czech win of the day in junior age group came in men's kayak event, where Slovenian Lenart Stanovnik took advantage of home course to win ahead of Czech kayaker Matyas Novak and Swiss representative Luis Clavadetscher.
While Czech showed power in junior part, France excelled in the U23 part of the competition. Etienne Klatt and Charles Ferrion were first and second in men's U23 C1 heats, and Czech Filip Janu was third. Luca Barone (FRA) was 0.80 seconds faster than Vojtech Matejicek (CZE) and 1.09 seconds faster than Giacomo Abbiatti (ITA) in men's U23 K1 heats.
French C2s were the fastest in men's and women's events. Roussin - Roussin and Passernig - Perreau finished first and second ahead of Slovenians Gradišek - Gale in men's C2, while Malinge - Gireaud and Gaubert - Raguenes took first and second place in women's C2 heats. Panato and Razzauti were third in women's C2.
German kayaker Christina Massini was only 0.09 seconds faster than Czech Marie Nemcova in second place of women's U23 K1 heats, and another Czech paddler Barbora Dimovova finished third. Marie Nemcova also competed in C1 where she was the fastest. Elsa Gaubert from France was second and Cecilia Panato from Italy third.
On Saturday, the championships in Solkan will conclude with individual sprint finals and sprint team races.
27.8.2021
