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Many of European Canoe Slalom paddlers chose Oceania for their winter training camp location. Most of them is preparing in Australia, but some decided to visit New Zealand as well and participate at the Oceania Championships in Auckland. European representatives Camille Prigent and Monica Doria Vilarrubla won medals in women’s kayak and canoe final.

Monica Doria Vilarrubla, 2017 Junior European Champion, picked up silver medal in women’s canoe final, finishing only behind the biggest star Jessica Fox from Australia. Luuka Jones from New Zealand finished third in the final. Three more European canoeists started in the final of the event. Klara Olazabal from Spain finished seventh, Sona Stanovska from Slovakia was eighth and Miren Lazkano from Spain tenth.

French kayaker Camille Prigent also occupied the podium position, finishing third in women’s kayak final. The top two paddlers of the final Jessica Fox and Luuka Jones were unbeatable and only half a second difference divided them, while Prigent in the third place produced 4.74 seconds slower time than Fox. Laia Sorribes from Spain finished sixth almost ten seconds behind Fox.

A narrow gap of ten hundredths of a second put Spanish canoeist Ander Elosegi into fourth place instead of third. Australian Daniel Watkins won the race ahead of American representative Zachary Lokken and Australian Ian Borrows.

The only European finalist of men’s kayak event was Samuel Hernanz, silver and bronze medallist of European Championships in 2011 and 2014. Spanish representative finished the race in seventh position. Australian paddler Lucien Delfour took the win ahead of American Michal Smolen and Finn Butcher from New Zealand.

Photo: Photo by Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media Services (@dscribernz on Insta)