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Exciting racing on the Sava River came to an end with canoe slalom finals and extreme slalom races. Local fans were excited after the win of Eva Terčelj in women’s kayak final. The 2019 World Champion and last year’s European Championships silver medallist was unbeatable at a home course. With a penalty free and a fast run she had no problems reaching the top position. She was more than five seconds faster than all the other finalists in women’s kayak.

 

“I had three really nice runs during the weekend. More importantly, without touches which makes me very happy. I would like to thank the girls as they made this competition really strong, which adds the pressure. This is very important for the upcoming season and good training,” said Terčelj, who won at the ECA cup in Tacen already last year.

 

Italian Stefanie Horn was second and German Elena Lilik third. Reigning Olympic and World Champion Ricarda Funk (GER) had two touches which pushed her out of the podium to fourth place.

 

Like Terčelj, Italian paddler Giovanni De Gennaro produced the best final run to win men’s K1 final. He was 1.24 seconds ahead of Slovenian Peter Kauzer, who lost the top position due to two penalty seconds, while Austrian Mario Leitner finished third.

 

“It’s unbelievable. It’s actually my favourite course. We come here every year, it is very challenging, we are really close with Slovenians every time. In order to try to beat them, you have to watch them, study the water and it’s so much fun. It’s another win in this place. It’s never easy, because everyone is super fast here. You need to be good at the right moment. I am really happy,” said Italian.

 

The third paddler of the day who managed to repeat his success from 2021 was canoeist Matija Marinić. Croatian feels like at home in Ljubljana since he spends a lot of time training on this course: “It always nice to win here. I had a really good race in the final. In the semifinal I also had a good run, but had one touch. I am very satisfied with the result. This result is very important for me, because I was not able to go to training camp in some warm place, so I stayed at home and I trained in Zagreb on flatwater. This is some kind of satisfaction that I am on the right course with my training and everything.”

 

Today, Marinić was 0.90 seconds faster than Italian Paolo Ceccon, while Luka Božič won bronze medal for Slovenia. Olympic champion Benjamin Savšek was the fastest both in heats and semifinal, but his final run was full of mistakes that surprisingly pushed him to sixth place.

 

As ECA European Cup is an open race, athletes from other continents have to right to participate. Brazilians who came to Europe, took part in this competition and were unbeatable in the remaining three events of the competition weekend. In women’s canoe Ana Satila won the race ahead of German Elena Lilik, reigning World Champion in this event, and Slovenian Eva Alina Hočevar.

 

Satila was also the best in women’s extreme slalom, where Eva Alina Hočevar took silver medal and Ajda Novak bronze (both SLO). In men’s extreme slalom event Pedro Goncalves won in the final ahead of two Austrians – Felix Oschmautz and Mario Leitner.

 

The next ECA European Open Canoe Slalom cups are scheduled for next weekend in La Seu d’Urgell and Krakow.