On the final day of the canoe slalom World Ranking race, which also counts for ECA European Open Canoe Slalom Cup, in Huningue, suburb of Basel, Ricarda Funk, Martin Dougoud, Martina Satkova and Raffaello Ivaldo took the wins in their respective events.
The reigning Olympic and World Champion Ricarda Funk was in her own league in women’s kayak final. With a penalty free run she finished the race 5.69 seconds ahead of German-born Italian paddler Stefanie Horn. Italian had two touches in her final run, so additional four seconds were added to the final time. Elena Lilik from Germany navigated the course without the touches, but was slower on the way, so she finished third, 6.79 seconds behind Funk.
Swiss organisers of the race were happy with the final result in men’s kayak event. Martin Dougoud finished the race in first position thanks to penalty free run. German Noah Hegge and Swiss Lukas Werro were both faster on the course but less precise. Each of them earned two penalty seconds which pushed them to second and third place respectively.
Andrea Herzog who won in women’s C2 heats on Saturday was again fast on the river, but six penalty seconds cost her win. The former world champion had to settle with third position at the end, 4.06 seconds behind Czech canoeist Martina Satkova, who celebrated the win. Elena Lilik was second, 3.60 seconds behind.
Raffaello Ivaldi from Italy was the best in men’s canoe final. Only 0.03 seconds divided him from second placed Thomas Koechlin from Switzerland, who had a two seconds penalty which took away the win from him. German canoeist Lennard Tuchscherer was third.
The next ECA European Open Canoe Slalom Cup will be held in April in Ljubljana-Tacen, followed by races in La Seu d’Urgell, Krakow, Liptovsky Mikulaš, Pau, Merano, Augsburg, Prague and Bratislava.
27.3.2022
