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The first medals of the day were awarded in junior women’s K2 event. It was Hungarian anthem that played at the medals ceremony thanks to Viktoria Tofalvi and Csilla Rugasi who were the fastest crew of this event. Less than a second and a half later Italian boat crossed the finish line. Teresa Isotta and Petra Giuliano won silver medal for this country and another Hungarian duo Viktoria Nagy – Zsofia Bartos won bronze medal.  

 

 

Men’s U23 C1 race was very exciting. One of the favourites for the medal Sergio Maciel from Portugal capsized in the first lap, but with excellent skill he managed to get into the boat quite fast. The leading group escaped him and he also had to remove the water from the boat at the portage area, but as race continued he was closer and closer to the leading group. At the end he managed to win the bronze medal. The new European Champion Mateusz Borgiel from Poland was also in the back after the first part of the race. He closed the gap with each lap and found enough strength to win the gold medal in front of his compatriot Patryk Gluza. These three canoeists were on the podium also at last year’s European Championships in Portugal.

 

 

“The start was very difficult. I had a big gap with the leading canoeist. With each gap I returned to the first place, which is very good,” said Borgiel.

 

 

There was some drama at the end of junior men’s K2 event. British duo William Scammell and James Bell crossed the finish line first, but they were given 30 penalty seconds because they threw they drink bottles at the portage in the way that is not allowed according to the rules and this requires a penalty of 30 seconds. Because of this they dropped to third place. At the end Hungarians Marcell Mercz and Adam Horvath celebrated gold medal and French duo Briac Labbe – Lois Mille was second.

 

 

Hungary celebrated a win in men’s C2 junior event as well. Zoltan Vass and Bence Bucsi were the strongest crew of the day, finishing the race ahead of second placed Portugal’s crew Leonardo Vicente – Rodrigo Amaral and Adrian Klos – Grzegorz Ludwiczak from Poland who were third.

 

 

In the last event of the day kayakers in the U23 age group paddled on a 26.20 kilometres long course. It was a race dictated by German cousins Nico and Marcel Paufer who were in front the whole race and the gap between them and the others just went bigger. It was Nico Paufler who celebrated the gold medal in front of Marcel Paufler. It was a tough race for a third place as well between Portuguese kayaker Miguel Rodrigues and Danish representative Mads Pedersen. The latter was stronger in the last metres of the course and won a bronze medal for Denmark.

 

 

“Awesome race together. It was fantastic race from the beginning. I never believed in it. We are both also paddling in whitewater, so these waves are good for us and we could have our tactic. It was great for us I never believed we could do it,” said the Pauflers at the end.