Windy conditions in the Ondrej Cibak Whitewater stadium in Liptovsky Mikulaš were making problems for some of the athletes who were starting later in the morning as wind was getting stronger during the day. In the morning part of the programme we followed individual heats in women's and men's kayak event and in the afternoon the first medals were awarded to the best in team events.
Camille Prigent, Romane Prigent and Emma Vuitton were the second on the start line of women's kayak team event, but their performance was so good they remained in the top position until the end of the race. French kayakers picked up two penalty seconds on their way and were at the end 3.34 seconds faster than representatives of Great Britain.
British kayakers Kimberley Woods, Mallory Franklin and Megan Hamer - Evans had a scary collision in the gate twelve, but they still managed to pick up silver medal. Klaudia Zwolinska, Natalia Pacierpnik and Dominika Brzeska from Poland were third.
We had to wait for the final results in men's kayak team event when the Czech team with Jiri Prskavec, Vit Prindiš and Ondrej Tunka crossed the finish line. They produced the fastest time, but then the 50 seconds penalty popped up on the scoreboard and the judges had to revise the run again to make sure everything was judged correctly. Czechs stayed on the top, finishing the race 1.69 seconds ahead of Polish kayakers Michal Pasiut, Dariusz Popiela and Jakub Brzezinski, while Germans Hannes Aigner, Noah Hegge and Stefan Hengst won bronze medal.
In the morning part of the programme individual heats in women's and men's kayak events were held. British kayaker Mallory Franklin produced the best run to win in women's kayak heats, 0.83 seconds ahead of Polish representative Klaudia Zwolinska, while Italian Stefanie Horn finished third in the first stage of the competition.
Austrian Felix Oschmautz was the best kayaker of the day in men's event, local star Jakub Grigar finished half a second behind him, and Joseph Clarke from Great Britain was third.
There were some upsets in today's heats. Multiple European and World Champion and 2016 Olympic Games silver medallist Peter Kauzer was left outside the semifinal, after two bad runs. Olympic Champion Jiri Prskavec also had to go into the second heats run, but had the best time in second try, so he qualified for the semifinal at the end. Kimberley Woods, Zuzana Pankova, Laia Sorribes, Klara Olazabal, Stefan Hengst and Isak Ohrstrom were also some of the athletes who concluded their championships on the opening day.
On Friday, the championships continues with women's and men's C1 heats in the morning and canoe team events in the afternoon.
LIVE RESULTS:
https://siwidata.com/canoelive/#/live/eca/2017
LIVESTREAMING
Thursday and Friday: https://www.youtube.com/c/CanoeEurope
Saturday and Sunday*: https://olympics.com/en/sport-events/2022-eca-canoe-european-slalom-championships-liptovsky-mikuias/
Important: *Saturday's and Sunday's programme will be exclusively streamed on Olympic Channel, however, because of the TV rights restrictions certain territories will be geoblocked (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Spain, France).
All the races (including Saturday's and Sunday's programme) will be available on Canoe Europe Youtube channel in the week after the championships ends, when the TV rights restrictions will be lifted.
TV RIGHTS holders (check the TV station's programme for exact times):
Slovakia: TV JOJ
Czech Republic: Česka televize
Spain: RTVE
France: L'Equipe
Slovenia: TV Slovenija
Germany: ARD/ZDF
Austria: ORF
Event website: https://canoeliptov.sk/
26.5.2022
