Eliška Mintalova from Slovakia and Stefanie Horn from Italy were crowned European Champions in women's K1 event of the 2022 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in Liptovsky Mikulaš, Slovakia. This is the first time two athletes stood on the highest podium position at any canoe slalom European Championships.
23-year-old Slovak canoe slalom paddler Eliška Mintalova started in the middle of the final as she finished the semifinal run in sixth place. She had a penalty free final run and stayed in the leading position until the very last athlete on the start line - Italian Stefanie Horn.
German-born Horn was the fastest in the semifinal and when she crossed the finish line she produced exactly the same time as Slovak representative, so it became clear they will share the top podium position and celebration in Slovak and Italian team could begin.
After the great success in her home country Eliška Mintalova was a bit shy speaking in English, "I am very happy because I am European Champion and this is my home course. It's a special emotion for me. Everything was very good and I was focusing just on my run."
Her Italian colleague Stefanie Horn was over the moon too after her biggest individual success so far. She added individual European gold medal to her two silvers from 2013 European Championships in Krakow and 2017 Championships in Ljubljana - Tacen.
"I had a really difficult winter this year. Starting the last with such a great time in the semifinal, I had some pressure, but I am really happy. I am in love with Liptovsky, because I got to know my husband here. I love paddling here, it feels like flying under the bridge and there is big adrenaline, but when you go down it's really nice, it's beautiful. My final run in contrast to my semifinal run was slower, because I did not enter in the right strokes, it was less fluent," said Horn.
Mallory Franklin from Great Britain picked up bronze medal, her second medal of this championships as she was a part of the British silver women's K1 team.
Surprisingly, German star Ricarda Funk, reigning Olympic and World Champion failed to advance to the final after she did too many mistakes on a demanding semifinal course.
Men's kayak final also brought historic moment. 29-year-old Jiri Prskavec was unbeatable both in semifinal and final and he won his fifth European Champion title, which makes him the most decorated male kayaker at European Championships. With this achievement, he shares the five European wins with legendary Slovak kayaker Elena Kaliska, and is one European Champion title behind Slovak twins Peter and Pavol Hochschorner who were European Champions in men's C2 six times.
"I don't think anybody could expect to double it again. I wasn't event hoping for such a great result," said Prskavec, who repeated his success from 2016 when Europeans were held at the same course and he won individual and team gold medal. "I am super happy taht Liptovsky Mikulaš is one of mine best courses, I have good races here. I am really happy about it. The problem today wasn't only the hard course but also the wind, which was making it much harder. I managed to have a good line and maybe I was a bit lucky in the final that the wind wasn't so bad. I managed to put down a good run and I am European Champion," added the best Czech kayaker.
Italian kayaker Giovanni De Gennaro won silver medal for an exciting day for Italian team as well as De Gennaro family. Namely, his sister in law is Stefanie Horn won the European Champion title just an hour before De Gennaro repeated his silver success from last year's European Championships in Ivrea. Austrian Felix Oschamutz was third. This is the first individual medal at senior championships for Oschamutz, who was 2017 junior world champion.
On Sunday, the championships will conclude with women's and men's C1 semifinal and final runs and extreme slalom final phase.
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/
28.5.2022
