German canoe slalom paddler Elena Apel had an excellent competition weekend in Slovenia. She won two medals in Saturday’s race and added two more on Sunday. With this she became the overall winner of ECA Canoe Slalom European Cup both in kayak and canoe event. Peter Kauzer was overall winner in men’s K1 and Luka Božič in men’s C1 event.
This weekend was the first for Elena Apel competing at Tacen canoe slalom course, but her results showed she adapted to the new venue very quickly. After winning gold medal in Saturday’s canoe final and bronze medal in kayak final, she added two more medals to her collection on Sunday. Paddler from Augsburg won in women’s kayak final ahead of former Junior World Champion Eva Alina Hočevar and Ajda Novak (both SLO).
In canoe final Apel had to congratulate Alja Kozorog (SLO) who was 1.38 seconds faster. Eva Alina Hočevar finished the race in third place.
A bit surprisingly 2016 Olympic medallist Peter Kauzer (SLO), the fastest in the first run, did not have a good final run, so he finished third, behind his two younger colleagues from Slovenian national team Martin Srabotnik and Niko Testen.
Once again the men’s canoe final offered a battle between best Slovenians Benjamin Savšek and Luka Božič who are among the best also in World Ranking. This time it was Luka Božič who took the win 0.45 seconds ahead of Benjamin Savšek. French representative Jules Bernardet was third.
“This weekend I finally started racing. In the last 14 days we decreased the trainings and started with more focused training for the most important races, such as selection races and European Cup. I think I paddled really well this weekend,” said Luka Božič.
The sum of the results over the weekend also gave the names of overall winners who received special awards. Elena Apel was the first name of women’s part of the competition, taking the overall win in canoe and kayak event, Peter Kauzer was the best in men’s K1 and Luka Božič in men’s C1.
16.8.2020
