It was all about the local paddlers
winning gold medals and last year’s champions continuing their reign on the
third day of Canoe Sprint competition at the Kraków-Małopolska 2023 European
Games.
The local crowd had a double reason
to celebrate, and their celebration started from the first race on. In the
first race of the day, women’s K2 500 metres, local heroes Anna Pulawska and
Karolina Naja won the gold medal and defended their title in a very close race.
“I was focused at Karolina’s back so
I didn’t know what’s happened around us. I wasn’t sure that we won until the
finish line (laughs),” said Pulavska.
“I hope the fans were satisfied, and
this was a very good day for us. We are happy that we confirmed our good shape
and defended the title,” said Naja.
The Danish duo Emma Jorgensen and
Frederikke Matthiesen won the silver, with Hungarians Alida Gazso and Tamara
Csipes securing the third place.
The continuation of celebration for
the Polish fans at Kryspinow Waterway was secured by Dorota Borowska who
delighted the fans with a superb race in which she managed to fight off the attacks
from Liudmyla Luzan (UKR) and Maria Corbera (ESP).
“I’ve focused only on myself, on my
race. I didn’t looke at my opponents and to be honest, from start to the finish
line I did’t know if I was first, second or fifth. I’ve just tried to show
everything what I can, and I did it,” said Borowska.
The hero of the day was the Danish
paddling star, Emma Jorgensen who later in the day paddled a flawless race in
the women’s K1 200 metres which brought her the third consecutive European
champion title, and her second medal of the day, and the third at this year’s
European championships.
“It is an amazing day today. I have
just won my third K1 200 metre title which is great, but what makes it even
more special is the fact that I have won it less than two hours after winning
the silver with Frederikke (Matthiesen) in the K2 500. This is such an amazing
feeling. I went out there with sore arms but my mind was ready. I just gave
everything that I have and it turned out to be enough,” said Jorgensen.
The battle for the other two places
on the podium was a highly contested one, since the difference between the
second and the fourth place was only seven hundredths of a second. Milica
Novakovic from Serbia won the silver, while the Portuguese Francisca Laia won
bronze.
The Lithuanian Henrikas Zustautas was
successful in defending his 2022 C1 200 metres title by winning his second
consecutive gold at Kryspinow Waterway. Winning the silver medal brought
Georgian Zaza Nadiradze back to the continental championships podium four years
after he won the title in Belgrade. The Spanish silver medallist from last
year, Pablo Grana, won the bronze.
“Eight years ago I won in Baku, and I
am very happy that I am back on top at the European Games again. I have also
repeated the result from last year which makes this gold medal even sweeter”,
said Zustautas.
The men’s K1 200 metres race, as
always, provided a lot of suspense and thrills. The level of competitiveness in
this discipline is best described by the fact that eight, out of nine finalists,
crossed the finish-line within eight tenths of a second. The new European
champion is the Portuguese Messias Baptista, who continued the reign of
Portuguese paddlers in this discipline.
“My first time competing in K1 200
metres couldn’t go any better. The race yesterday felt really good and today I
was feeling it. Two hundred metres is always very very close and all the other
athletes are very strong. I had a very good start and after that I was going
with the flow. Winning the gold medal is the best feeling I could have,” said
Baptista.
Second place in K1 200 was won by
Petter Menning (SWE), with Roberts Akmens (LAT) edging out Serbia’s Marko
Dragosavljevic by 0.02 of a second, to take the bronze medal.
The cherry on top was the coveted
men’s K4 500 metre final. The exciting and highly contested race was resolved
in the final metres of the course, with Spain (Saul Craviotto, Carlos Arevalo,
Marcus Walz, Rodrigo Germade) winning the gold. Silver medal position was won
by the Ukrainian crew (Oleh Kukharyk, Dmytro Danylenko, Ihor Trunov, Ivan
Semykin) with Andjelo Dzombeta, Marko Novakovic, Stefan Vrdoljak and Vladimir
Torubarov taking the bronze for Serbia.
“This was a very hard and a tough
race but we did really well. To say the truth in the middle part of the course
it was very close race but technically we did what we needed to. In the finish
part we saw that there were a lot of very good boats around us, but we
responded really well and won the gold medal. We have to move on now and
concentrate on the World championships to qualify for Paris,” said Craviotto.
All results from day three of Canoe
Sprint competition at Kryspinow Waterway can be found here.
The rest of the day is reserved for
semifinals in eight disciplines. All results of the penultimate day of Canoe
Sprint competition can be accessed here.
European Games Krakow-Malopolska 2023
is the Europe’s biggest multidisciplinary sporting event in 2023. More than 7
thousand athletes are competing in 26 sports and 29 disciplines for 253 gold
medals. More than that, European Games 2023 are part of the qualification
process for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 in 19 sports. This great
celebration of sports started on 21st of June. The closing ceremony will take
place on July 2nd.
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