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Matej Benuš finished fourth in men’s C1 standings after four selection races which means he will miss out the first major canoe slalom event of the year – the 2018 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. He will, however, have a chance to compete at the World Cup races in the season 2018 as Slovakia has a right to compete with four canoeists in the World Cup series. Alexander Slafkovsky and Michal Martikan had a bit of advantage in the selection races with bonus points for their individual medals at last year’s World Championships in Pau. Young canoeist Marko Mirgorodsky, last year’s World and European U23 champion, finished the selection races in third place.

 

Another missing crew at the Europeans in Prague will be legends of Canadian double Peter and Pavol Hochschorner, three times Olympic Champions and London Olympics bronze medallists, who were fourth in the selection races standings. The best in C2 of the Slovak selection races were Peter and Ladislav Škantar, Rio Olympic champions, who had 12 points advantage over Tomaš Kučera and Jan Batik, 2016 European Champions. Matuš Gewissler and Juraj Skakala finished third to book their place in the team for European Championships.

 

In men’s kayak team Jakub Grigar and Martin Halčin again securely won their place in the national team. This year they will join forces with Jakub Stanovsky who finished the selection races in third place.

 

In women’s kayak event Elena Kaliska won the selection races and will paddle together in a team event with representatives of younger generation Eliška Mintalova and Michaela Haššova. The selection races were very tight as five girls were still in play for the national team before the last race. Jana Dukatova is expecting a baby this summer, so she is missing this season.

 

The youngest team is in women’s canoe event. Three girls who will compete for Slovakia in international arena are Monika Škachova, Simona Macekova and Sona Stanovska, who is still a junior.