The second race in the 2022 ECA
European Open Canoe Slalom Cup series took place in Ljubljana – Tacen,
Slovenia. Last year’s winners of the race in this series in Ljubljana Eva
Terčelj, Giovanni De Gennaro and Matija Marinić repeated their success in 2022 too.
Brazilian Ana Satila took the win in women’s C1 and extreme slalom, and her
teammate Pedro Goncalves was the best in men’s extreme slalom.
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.
Livestreaming: https://www.youtube.com/CanoeEurope
Results: http://www.timing-mojstrana.com/23-24-4-2022-tacen-eca-open-slalom-cup-2022/
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