The last day of the 2021 ECA Wildwater Canoeing European Championships in Sabero brought individual and team wildwater sprint finals. French team dominated the day, winning gold medals in majority of the events. Only one individual and one team gold medal went to the other than French team.
Spectators in Sabero saw another day
of excellent racing on the Esla River. In the morning part of the programme the
individual sprint finals were held and France took the gold medals in all
events but one.
It was Belgium's Maxime Richard who
denied a completely golden day for France and took the win in men's kayak
final. 33-year-old Belgian found the fastest line and celebrated a win, 0.060
seconds ahead of Maxence Barouh from France. Bronze medal went to Anže Urankar from
Slovenia, silver medallist of the last European Championships. The defending
European Champion in sprint Nejc Žnidarčič from Slovenia was out of the medals
in fourth place.
"I am super happy. I was never
European Champion before. I got silver medal back in 2009, this was one of the
medals I was missing. I had a clean run, the feeling was good. That's just a
perfect start of the day. I was expecting this course to be a big longer, so I
was training to be about 50 seconds. Usually I am able to have quite good
finish. So, when it is so short a very little mistake is going to leave you out
of the podium. It was a nice distance, but I would not mind if it was just a
little bit longer. The goal here was to win a gold medal. I had a good start of
the season at World Cup in Banja Luka a few weeks ago, so I knew I am back at
my maximum speed. Today I was able to use it to reach the goal, " said
Maxime Richard.
All the remaining individual finals
were dominated by French paddlers. Pauline Freslon started the successful day
with a win in women's kayak final. She was 0.260 seconds faster than Czech
kayaker Barbora Dimovova, while Lise Vinet from France took bronze medal.
The French celebration was continuing
in men's canoe final. Quentin Dazeur took the confident win, with more than
half a second advantage over two Czechs - Ondrej Rolenc in second place and
Matej Vanek in third.
The Marseillaise played in honour of
Elsa Gaubert who was the fastest in women's canoe final. It was a tight final
as Cecilia Panato from Italy crossed the finish line only 0.190 seconds behind
the winner to claim silver medal. Helene Raguenes from France finished the race
in third place.
Stephane Santamaria - Quentin Dazeur
and Pierre Troubady - Hugues Moret were the top two crews of men's C2 final to
celebrate a double French win in this event. Normen Weber and Tim Heilinger
were third, about a second and a half behind the winners Santamaria - Dazeur.
The last individual event of the day
was women's C2, but it is a non-official Championships event. Here too, the
French crew Elsa Gaubert - Helene Raguenes won. Two British doubles Laura Milne
- Ellie Seed and Kerry May Christie - Emma Eve Christie were second and third
respectively.
In the afternoon part of the
programme we followed the sprint team events where France once more showed
their superpower. Out of the four official events three were won by the French
team. It was the Slovenian men's K1 team with Anže Urankar, Simon Oven and Nejc
Žnidarčič who celebrated gold medal with 0.320 seconds advantage over French
kayakers Felix Bouvet, Maxence Barouh and Luca Barone. Czech kayak team claimed
bronze medal.
In women's kayak team sprint event
Pauline Freslon, Lise Vinet and Phenicia Dupras produced almost one and a half
second faster time than Czechs, while Germany took bronze medal.
Quentin Dazeur, Charles Ferrion and
Etienne Klatt won gold for France in men's canoe ahead of the teams from Czech
Republic and Germany.
In the final event of the
championships - men's C2 sprint team event - France concluded an amazingly
successful day with another superb run and gold medal. Czechs were second and
Germans third.
Results: https://www.conersyslive.com/Results/Schedule?chid=999
Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpy6ymNkyOTWAtWX8-svhag
Official website: www.aguasbravassabero.com
Facebook: @SaberoAguasBr
Instagram: saberoaguasbr
Twitter: @SaberoAguasBr
PHOTOS (Photo: Nina Jelenc)
Michael Phelps Teaches Swimming
No comments:
Post a Comment