The 2022 ECA Canoe Slalom European
Championships in Liptovsky Mikulaš, Slovakia, concluded with women's and men's
C1 finals and extreme slalom races. Mallory Franklin won her second European
champion title in women's C1, Benjamin Savšek his fourth in men's C1. Tereza
Fišerova and Jan Rohrer were crowned European Champions in extreme slalom.
What a final day we have seen at the
2022 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in Liptovsky Mikulaš, Slovakia.
The host nation was a bit shocked after they were empty handed in men's canoe
final, where their canoeists were among the main favourites for the medals.
However, it was a golden day for Tokyo Olympic Champion Benjamin Savšek.
35-year-old Slovenian paddler produced a superb final run and stayed at the top
until the last competitor on the start line - Denis Gargaud Chanut - who was
the fastest in semifinal. A big mistake cost Frenchman a podium, and the
celebration in Slovenian team could begin.
This is the fourth European Champion
title for Benjamin Savšek, who celebrated wins in 2015 in Markkleeberg, in 2019
in Pau and in 2020 in Prague. In addition, he also had individual bronze medal
from 2012 European Championships in Augsburg.
"Today, it was a really hard
fight for this title. The course was really difficult, especially at the
bottom. I am really happy to hold this pressure before the start and to do it
from start to finish without touches, with a clean run," said Savšek, who
was also 2017 World Champion.
Sideris Tasiadis from Germany
finished second. This was his sixth individual medal at European Championships,
third silver. Young Spanish paddler Miquel Trave was third.
Mallory Franklin held the pressure
and kept her leading position from the semifinal also in the final. At the end,
she was 1.72 seconds faster than French canoeist Marjorie Delassus, and Tereza
Fišerova from Czech Republic won bronze medal.
"It's really really cool. It's
only my second title and I'm really happy to do it. I've been paddling really
well and that being enough is always really nice. It's been a good competition,
a little dramatic at times, but I've really enjoyed my paddling. I've come
really strong at start of season," said Franklin.
Both Franklin and Fišerova stood on
the podium of afternoon's extreme slalom race. It was 24-year-old Czech paddler
who picked up gold medal after tough final race. Franklin managed to overtook
Slovenian Ajda Novak in the last metres of the course for silver medal and
Novak won bronze at the end.
"I am really happy, this race
was really hard for me. At the end, I won gold medal. It's dream! I did not
really prepare for this race, I had one training here, so I think I had a lot
of luck here," Fišerova said after another great success.
In men's extreme slalom final Jan
Rohrer from Switzerland found the fastest line for the European Champion title.
Two Austrians - Mario Leitner and Felix Oschmautz - kept him company on the
podium. After the race Jan said: "Today, with such a short course, start played
a really big role and it was leading then to the win."
Next year the European Championships
will be held in Krakow as a part of the European Games, where canoe slalom will
be featured in the sports programme for the first time in history.
LIVE RESULTS:
https://siwidata.com/canoelive/#/live/eca/2017
LIVESTREAMING
Thursday and Friday: https://www.youtube.com/c/CanoeEurope
Saturday and Sunday*: https://olympics.com/en/sport-events/2022-eca-canoe-european-slalom-championships-liptovsky-mikuias/
Important: *Saturday's and Sunday's
programme will be exclusively streamed on Olympic Channel, however, because of
the TV rights restrictions certain territories will be geoblocked (Slovakia,
Czech Republic, Spain, France).
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