News

A very demanding course setting on the Vltava River in Ceske Budejovice caused problems to all the teams at the start line of the opening day of the 2022 ECA Junior and U23 Canoe Slalom European Championships. At the end medals were won by those teams that navigated through the tough course with the least of mistakes.

 

Czech team was considered the main favourite for the European Champion titles at their home course, but they waited until the last team event of the day to celebrate gold medal. Women's junior kayak team with Klara Kneblova, Katerina Svehlova and Olga Samkova won the gold medal almost eight seconds ahead of Germany, while France picked up bronze medal.

 

In men's junior kayak team event Slovenia's Atej Zobec Urbancic, Ziga Lin Hocevar and Rene Jeklin produced almost twelve and a half seconds faster run than the team of Germany. Italian kayakers were third in the junior event.

 

France's Simon Hene, Anatole Delassus and Pierre Louis Sausseau were crowned U23 men's K1 team European Champions. They were four seconds ahead of Spanish trio, while Great Britain won bronze medal.

 

In women's K1 U23 team event Germany won the European Champion title ahead of France and Great Britain. Emily Apel, Annkatrin Plochmann and Franziska Hanke picked up six penalty seconds on the way, the least of all the teams in this event. France was only 0.35 behind with a total of 8 penalties.

 

In the first part of the programme the individual kayak heats were on the programme. Young Czech paddlers performed well at their home course. Jakub Krejci was the fastest in men's K1 U23 heats, Lucie Nesnidalova won in women's U23 K1 heats and Klara Kneblova in women's junior K1 heats. Titouan Castryck from France was the best kayaker in men's junior heats.

 

As mentioned Krejci was the fastest in men's U23 K1 heats, Pau Echaniz from Spain was second and Joshua Dietz from Germany third. In women's U23 K1 heats, Czech Antonie Galuskova secured herself second position behind her teammate Nesnidalova, and Monica Doria Vilarrubla from Andorra was third. In men's junior kayak heats gold and silver medallists of this year's junior and U23 World Championships, Titouan Castryck (FRA) and Stepan Venc (CZE) again won first and second position, and Czech Matyas Novak finished third in the first stage of the competition. Kneblova, Dominika Brzeska (POL) and Leire Goni (ESP) were top three in women's junior K1 heats.

 

 

On Friday, the Championships continues with junior and U23 men's and women's canoe heats, and all canoe team events.