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Slovenia and Czechia were the most successful nations of the 2024 ECA I Feel Slovenia Canoe Slalom European Championships in Ljubljana - Tacen, the 25th edition of the ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships. Both - host nation and Czechia - concluded the competition with a total of six medals, three of them gold, two silver and a bronze. Altogether athletes from nine countries won medals, besides Slovenian and Czech athletes, representatives of Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Great Britain and Austria reached the podium positions.

 

On the final competition day, young Slovenian paddler Žiga Lin Hočevar took the glory. 16-year-old athlete finished fourth in Saturday's kayak final, and on Sunday he produced a superb run in men's canoe final which brought him the Senior European Champion title. Žiga Lin was crowned junior World Champion in canoe last year in Krakow.

 

Local from Ljubljana comes from canoeing family. His grandfather competed at the 1972 Olympic Games and his father Simon was also a very successful competitor. In fact, Simon Hočevar won European Champion title in men's canoe in 1996 in Augsburg at the first ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in history.

 

Now, 28 years later, Žiga Lin was repeating his father's success and said in tears, "It feels amazing, it is the biggest victory of my life. It is unbelievable. I never thought this is going to happen this year, I just hope maybe one day I will win a professional race. It happened this year. It is the best day of my life!"

 

Young Slovenian paddler won the men's canoe final and beat his more experienced team colleagues Luka Božič and Benjamin Savšek, who are first and second respectively on the World Ranking list. Božič is last year's overall World Cup winner, and Benjamin Savšek reigning World and Olympic Champion.

 

Luka Božič won silver medal and was 0.84 seconds behind Hočevar, while Savšek took bronze medal (+1.07).

 

In women's canoe final German Andrea Herzog won her first senior European Champion title, after she finished the race 3.80 seconds ahead of Czech Gabriela Satkova and 6.52 seconds ahead of Marjorie Delassus from France.

 

Herzog, who is a two-times World Champion, so far did not have gold medal from European Championships. In her collection were two silver and one bronze medal in women's canoe team event at European Championships in 2016, 2017 and 2019.

 

This was a good consolation after she just missed out of the German Olympic team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

 

"It's great. A couple of weeks ago I just missed the Olympic spot in my federation, so this year I won't be at the Olympics again and I was really, really said. I thought this European Championships and the next World Cups would turn out good. Now it is a really, really good start. I know that I am good, that is a good feeling," said Andrea Herzog.

 

In the afternoon's canoe team events, Czechia (Tereza Kneblova, Gabriela Satkova, Martina Satkova) won ahead of Slovenia (Eva Alina Hočevar, Lea Novak, Alja Kozorog) and Great Britain (Mallory Franklin, Kimberley Woods, Ellis Miller) in women's canoe event.

 

In men's canoe team event, Slovenia confirmed the status of the main favourite. Savšek, Božič and Hočevar won the race ahead of Czechia (Lukaš Rohan, Jiri Prskavec, Vaclav Chaloupka) and Slovakia (Matej Benuš, Michal Martikan, Marko Mirgorodsky).

 

The 2025 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships will be held in Vaires-Sur-Marne at the Paris 2024 Olympic course.