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The Portuguese canoe sprint team celebrated two golds in Saturday's programme of the 2025 ECA Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe European Championships, winning elite finals in the men's kayak 1000 metres and men's K4 500 metres events. The first final of the day was won by Fernando Pimenta, who triumphed in the Olympic 1000-metre distance. He edged out Sweden’s Martin Nathell by less than a second, with Hungary’s Balint Kopasz finishing third, also within a second of the winner.

 

Pimenta, the first gold medallist of this year’s championships, said after the race:
“It is a crazy race. We know that we are at a high level at 1000 metres. We saw Olympic, World and European Championships medallists in this final. Yesterday, we did not get the final with my partner in K2 500, so I had to focus on my final. At the start I felt really fresh, the muscles were very soft, and I just had to feel every stroke. I enjoyed this crazy and great final. After a couple of years I took another gold at European Championships.”

 

Portugal took another gold in an Olympic event. In the men’s K4 500 final, Gustavo Goncalves, Joao Ribeiro, Messias Baptista and Pedro Casinha crossed the finish line 0.213 seconds ahead of the Czech crew and 0.323 seconds ahead of Poland.

 

The women’s K4 500 final was won by the Hungarian crew of Sara Fojt, Noemi Pupp, Laura Ujfalvi and Emese Kohalmi. Spain finished second, with Germany taking third place.

 

An incredibly tight finish was seen in the men's C1 1000 metres final, where centimetres again worked in favour of Romania’s Catalin Chirila, who successfully defended his European champion title. He beat Czech Martin Fuksa—who had strong crowd support—by just 0.057 seconds. Fuksa is the reigning Olympic and world champion in this distance. Bronze went to Serghei Tarnovschi of Moldova.

 

On the shortest distance, Poland’s Dorota Borowska performed best among the women canoeists, successfully defending her European champion title. She was joined on the podium by Ukraine’s Liudmyla Luzan and Spain’s Viktoriia Yarchevska.

 

Another familiar name topped the podium once again. Hungary’s Anna Lucz, who already won the 200-metre event last year, repeated her success. She was joined by athletes from Hungary’s neighbouring countries—Slovenia’s Anja Osterman in second and Serbia’s Milica Novakovic in third place.

 

The men’s C1 200 final was won by Spain’s Pablo Grana, who dethroned Poland’s Oleksii Koliadych. The Pole had been both European and World Champion at 200 metres last year. Third place went to Ukraine’s Andrii Rybachok.

 

Hungary’s Adam Varga was another athlete who did not relinquish his European crown. He was once again unbeatable in the men’s K1 500 metres final, with Spain’s Alex Graneri finishing second and Czech world champion Josef Dostal taking third position.

 

The Hungarian anthem also played in the women’s K1 1000 metres final, where Zsoka Csikos claimed victory. Sweden’s Melina Andersson finished second, and Spain’s Laura Pedruelo took third.

 

Her compatriots, Angels Moreno and Viktoriia Yarchevska (ESP), were unbeatable in the women’s C2 200 metres event. Ukraine’s Liudmyla Luzan and Irina Fedoriv finished second, with Hungary’s Agnes Kiss and Bianka Nagy in third.

 

Angels Moreno claimed her second gold of the day in the mixed C4 500. She teamed up with Maria Corbera, Adrian Sieiro and Daniel Grijalba in the Spanish boat to win ahead of crews from Hungary and Moldova.

 

The 2025 ECA Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe European Championships will conclude on Sunday with 12 more canoe sprint medal events and five races in paracanoe.