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It was a heart stopping women’s kayak final of the 75^th Tatra Slalom which also counted as the ECA Open Canoe Slalom European Cup. Viktoriia Us from Ukraine, who was leading after the semi-final, produced a fast and clean final run to celebrate ahead of Slovak Eliška Mintalova, who became the European Champion on this course in Liptovský Mikuláš last year. Mintalova, too, paddled without any mistakes that would cost her penalty seconds, but at the end only 0.03 seconds divided the top two paddlers of the day in this event. Zuzana Pankova was even faster on the course, but a touch and two penalty seconds pushed her to third position (+1.51).

 

Jakub Grigar, Tokyo Olympic Games medallist, won in men’s kayak final on his home course, but he nearly missed the final, after ninth result of the semi-final. In the decisive run of the day he showed his skills and had a penalty free and fast run. Isak Ohrstrom from Sweden, who was the fastest in the heats and third in the semi-final, was a little over two seconds behind Grigar, while Adam Gonsenica (SVK), the fastest in the semi-final finished the race in third position.

 

Zuzana Pankova won the second medal of the day in women’s canoe final. She was eight in the semi-final, but then improved her run in the final and won despite two seconds penalty. Sona Stanovska also had a touch and was 1.90 seconds behind her team mate from Slovakia. Viktoriia Us added bronze medal in canoe to her gold from kayak final.

 

In men’s canoe final, where Slovakia has many excellent names, Marko Mirgorodsky dominated on both competition days. After winning the heats and semi-final, he also took the top podium position in the end of the competition weekend. He was more than six seconds faster than his opponents. Legendary Michal Martikan showed the age is just a number and won second place at the age of 43. Matej Benuš concluded the top three with bronze medal.

 

In the last part of the competition programme athletes also competed in kayak cross. Sona Stanovska took the win in women’s final, ahead of Ivana Chlebova (both SVK) and Ukrainian Anna Lychko, while in men’s final Swiss kayaker Manuel Munsch won ahead of two Ukrainian representatives Oleksandr Fedorenko and Bohdan Plishchuk.