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The third competition day of the 2022 ECA Canoe Sprint European Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, brought the first medal races. Ten finals in the 1000 metres events were held today and athletes from Hungary, Georgia, Austria, Italy, Germany and Ukraine won gold medals

Georgian canoeist Aleksandre Tsivtsivadze managed to defend his Junior European Champion title from the 2021 Junior and U23 European Championships which was held in Poznan. It was a very tight men’s junior C1 1000 metres final. Kacper Sieradzan from Poland who won silver medal was only 0.090 seconds behind the Georgian paddler, while Daniel Grijalba from Spain won bronze medal and was only 0.383 seconds behind.

 

The win in men’s junior K1 1000m final stayed in Hungarian hands. It was Hunor Hidvegi who managed to repeat the success of Levente Kurucz from 2021. Hidvegi crossed the finish line1.414 seconds faster than Marcos Caballero from Spain, andAchille Spadacini from Italy won bronze medal.

 

Hungary celebrated gold medal also thanks to Reka Nemes who was unbeatable in women’s junior K1 1000 meters final. Slovak kayaker Bianka Sidova finished second and Estonian Elizaveta Fedorova was third in this final. Gergely Lugosi and David Uhrin won third gold medal of the day for Hungary. They were the best in men’s junior C2 1000m final, finishing the race ahead of Polish duo Eryk Wilga – Piotr Kujawa and Romanian crw Adrian Stepan – Andrei Costache.

 

Equally impressive was Italian gold medal score. They also won three gold medals. Gabriele Casadei was the best in men’s C1 U23 1000 metres final.Robert Lagdins from Latvia was second and Jiri Minarik from Czech Republic third. Both men’s K2 1000 metres finals also concluded according to Italian plans. Federico Zanutta – Luca Micott became Junior European Champions and Giovanni Penato – Luca Meneguolo were crowned Champion in the U23 category. Botond Szakacs – Peter Samu (HUN) and Lukaš Hrabek – Jakub Niebauer (CZE) were second and third respectively in men’s junior K2 1000m final. Radoslav Stefanov and Veselin Valchov from Bulgaria won silver and George Tenta – Dariusz Zharia from Romania bronze medal in MK2 U23 1000m final.

 

Austrian Timon Maurer from Austria was the winner of men’s K1 U23 1000 metres final, Jakob Kurschat from Germany was second and Alex Graner from Spain third. Graneri was the 2021 Junior European Champion in the K1 1000 metres event.

 

Enja Roesseling (GER) was crowned European Champion in women’s U23 1000 metres final. Olga Bako (HUN) and Adela Hazova (CZE) joined her on the winner’s podium. In the last A final of the day- men’s U23 C2 1000 metres final – Ukrainian duo Artem Chetvertak – Pavlo Borsuk won gold medal, ahead of Adrian Klos – Gracjan Michalak (POL) and Pablo Crespo – Jaime Duro (ESP).

 

On Sunday, the 2022 ECA Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint European Championships concludes with 500 and 200 metres finals.