What a final day we have seen at the 2022 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in Liptovsky Mikulaš, Slovakia. The host nation was a bit shocked after they were empty handed in men's canoe final, where their canoeists were among the main favourites for the medals.
However, it was a golden day for Tokyo Olympic Champion Benjamin Savšek. 35-year-old Slovenian paddler produced a superb final run and stayed at the top until the last competitor on the start line - Denis Gargaud Chanut - who was the fastest in semifinal. A big mistake cost Frenchman a podium, and the celebration in Slovenian team could begin.
This is the fourth European Champion title for Benjamin Savšek, who celebrated wins in 2015 in Markkleeberg, in 2019 in Pau and in 2020 in Prague. In addition, he also had individual bronze medal from 2012 European Championships in Augsburg.
"Today, it was a really hard fight for this title. The course was really difficult, especially at the bottom. I am really happy to hold this pressure before the start and to do it from start to finish without touches, with a clean run," said Savšek, who was also 2017 World Champion.
Sideris Tasiadis from Germany finished second. This was his sixth individual medal at European Championships, third silver. Young Spanish paddler Miquel Trave was third.
Mallory Franklin held the pressure and kept her leading position from the semifinal also in the final. At the end, she was 1.72 seconds faster than French canoeist Marjorie Delassus, and Tereza Fišerova from Czech Republic won bronze medal.
"It's really really cool. It's only my second title and I'm really happy to do it. I've been paddling really well and that being enough is always really nice. It's been a good competition, a little dramatic at times, but I've really enjoyed my paddling. I've come really strong at start of season," said Franklin.
Both Franklin and Fišerova stood on the podium of afternoon's extreme slalom race. It was 24-year-old Czech paddler who picked up gold medal after tough final race. Franklin managed to overtook Slovenian Ajda Novak in the last metres of the course for silver medal and Novak won bronze at the end.
"I am really happy, this race was really hard for me. At the end, I won gold medal. It's dream! I did not really prepare for this race, I had one training here, so I think I had a lot of luck here," Fišerova said after another great success.
In men's extreme slalom final Jan Rohrer from Switzerland found the fastest line for the European Champion title. Two Austrians - Mario Leitner and Felix Oschmautz - kept him company on the podium. After the race Jan said: "Today, with such a short course, start played a really big role and it was leading then to the win."
Next year the European Championships will be held in Krakow as a part of the European Games, where canoe slalom will be featured in the sports programme for the first time in history.
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).
29.5.2022
