News

The 2017 ECA Junior and U23 Canoe Slalom European Championships has come to an end with the remaining finals in individual C1W and C1M categories. New C1W U23 European Champion is Miren Lazkano from Spain, Marko Mirgorodsky (SVK) was the best in C1M U23 final. The new Junior C1W European Champion is Monica Doria Vilarrubla from Andorra and 2017 C1M Junior European Champion became Vojtech Heger from Czech Republic.

In a very interesting junior women’s C1 final Andorra’s Monica Doria Vilarrubla won the European Champion title and the first ever canoe slalom gold medal at European Championships for this small European country with a little over 85 thousand people living there.

 

Monica Doria Vilarrubla crossed the finish line 1.13 seconds faster than German Zoe Jakob. This was the first individual medal for Germany at this Championships in front of their home crowd. Gabriela Satkova from Czech Republic picked up bronze medal.

 

It was a real emotional day for Miren Lazkano as well. Spanish canoeist became a U23 European Champion in Hohenlimburg. Miren caught a place in the final with 9^th position after the semi-final, but in the decisive run of the championships she showed the best performance so far and picked up the gold medal. When the last competitor on the start – Nadine Weratschnig from Austria – crossed the finish line and concluded the competition in third place, Spanish team began to celebrate their second individual gold medal of the championships and the tears started to flown down Miren’s cheeks.

 

“I had a really bad season, but it ended well, so I am happy. Everything went as I expected so I am very happy. The course was very different from the others, but I like it, it’s special,” said Miren Lazkano.

 

Viktoria Wolffhardt, who celebrated European Champion title yesterday in women’s U23 kayak final, like Lazkano, just secured herself a place in the final with 10^th result of the semi-final, and showed much better performance in her second run of the day. She finished in a silver medal position, a second faster than her compatriot Nadine Weratschnig who was third.

 

In men’s C1 U23 final reigning U23 World Champion from Bratislava Marko Mirgorodsky (SVK) celebrated a title on the Lenne River as well. He set a very good time in his final run, but still had to wait nervously for his opponents to finish their runs. It was a tight decision in the end as only 84 hundredths of a second divided the new European Champion Marko Mirgorodsky and Lukaš Rohan (CZE) who was third. Cedric Joly from France joined Slovak and Czech canoeists on the podium and received silver medal.

 

“I am very happy. It was a good run in the final. I did everything well, without problems. I won so I am very happy. Other competitors also had good runs, but my time was good. I was really nervous because the last competitors had good runs,” said Mirgorodsky.

 

In the last event of the championships Czech athletes continued with their excellent performances. Vojtech Heger and Matyas Lhota finished the C1M Junior final in first and second place and German Lennard Tucherer picked up bronze medal. German athlete won bronze medal also at this year’s World Championships in Bratislava. Reigning Junior World Champion Kacper Sztuba (POL) stayed out of the final after the mistakes and four penalty seconds and was 18^th in the end.  

 

Next Canoe Slalom European Championships for Junior and U23 categories will be organised in Bratislava, Slovakia, in August 2018.