One of the traditional European venues for the biggest canoe slalom races in Krakow hosted another international competition – the 2022 ECA European Open Canoe Slalom Cup. Two races were held in two days and athletes from Poland, Ukraine, Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden, Serbia and Norway were on the start line. Majority of the wins stayed in the Polish hands, while top podium positions also went to representatives of Netherlands and Ukraine.
Polish paddler Aleksandra Stach showed good racing on both competition days and took two wins in women’s canoe final. On Saturday and Sunday her teammate Klaudia Zwolinska finished second in canoe. On Saturday Ukrainian representative Viktoriia Dobrotvorska picked up bronze medal, while on Sunday Lena Teunissen from Netherlands finished third in women’s canoe event.
Michal Pasiut (POL) also recorded two wins in two days. 30-year-old kayaker won on Saturday 0.38 seconds ahead of Swedish representative Isak Ohrstrom, while Dariusz Popiela finished third. On the second competition day Pasiut won in the final 0.22 seconds ahead of Popiela, and Jakub Brzezinski was third (all POL).
Martina Wegman from Netherlands was the fastest in the first women’s kayak final of the weekend. She was almost four and a half seconds faster than second placed Klaudia Zwolinska, while Natalia Pacierpnik (both POL) concluded the race in third position. On Sunday Zwolinska and Pacierpnik advanced one place, Zwolinska finishing at the highest podium position and Pacierpnik on second place, while third place went to Netherlands thanks to Lena Teunissen.
In men’s canoe all top three places were occupied by Polish paddlers on both competition days. Kacper Sztuba was the best on Saturday, when Grzegorz Hedwig won second place and Maciej Bartos third. On Sunday, it was Hedwig who had the best day, Szymon Nowobilski was second and Michal Wiercioch finished the race in third position.
Ukrainian paddler Viktoriia Dobrotvorska won in the final of women’s extreme slalom race, ahead of two Polish kayakers Aleksandra Stach and Dominika Danek. In men’s extreme slalom final Michal Ciaglo crossed the finish line first, Mateusz Polaczyk was second and Tadeusz Kuchno third.
The next two races in the 2022 ECA European Open Canoe Slalom Cup series will be held next weekend in Pau and Liptovsky Mikulaš.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/CanoeEurope
Photo: Facebook page Krakow Canoe Club
2.5.2022
