The last competition day of 2013 ICF Wildwater Canoeing Sprint World Championships in Solkan ended with a big win for France. They have won three gold medals in men’s C1, women’s K1 and men’s C2 event and a silver medal in men’s kayak event. Czech paddlers won a gold medal in men’s kayak team race. But the last day of the race brought joy to Slovenian team too. Men’s C2 team won a silver medal and men’s K1 team was third. Slovenia ended this Wildwater Canoeing Sprint World Championships with six medals.
Three day long World Championships in Slovenia ended with team races in all categories except C1 ladies where there were not enough participating nations. French team dominated the last competition day winning in three out of four categories. Their first gold medal was won by the men’s C1 team. Guillaume Alzingre, Tanguy Marquer and Stephane Santamaria were more than half a second faster than canoeists of Czech Republic Ondrej Rolenc, Lukaš Novosad and Antonin Haleš. German paddlers Normen Weber, Tim Heilinger and Dominik Pesch were third. Slovenian team with Simon Hočevar, Blaž Cof and Luka Žganjar was fourth missing out the medal for only 0,02 seconds.
The second gold medal for France came only a few minutes later. Claire Bren, Sixtine Malaterre and Manon Hostens were 1,08 seconds faster than representatives of Germany Manuela Stoberl, Birgit Bach and Sabine Fuesser. Andrea Merola, Costanza Bonaccorsi and Cristina Favaretto of Italy took bronze.
Men’s Canadian double team race was also dominated by French paddlers. Guillaume Alzingre – Yann Claudepierre, Damien and Gaetan Guyonnet and Frederic Leclerc – Remi Pete were 0,32 seconds faster than Slovenian team. Slovenian C2s were excellent at this World Championships winning two medals in individual event and Luka Božič – Sašo Taljat, Blaž Cof – Simon Hočevar and Peter Žnidaršič – Luka Žganjar also won silver in team event. Blaž Cof was one of the most successful competitors of the championships winning two individual medals and a silver in team race. “I did not expect to win three medals, but I hoped for them. The second run was perfect, it would be hard to paddle even better than we did. We pushed to the end and obviously it paid out. French were 32 hundredth of a second faster which is not a lot, but the second place is great result,” said Cof. Czech canoeists Jan Stastny – Ondrej Rolenc, Michal Šramek – Lukaš Tomek and Roman Mornsten – Petr Vesely were third.
The last team event of the day was men’s kayak race which was very stressful until the end. Czech kayakers Tomaš Slovak, Richard Hala and Karel Slepica won the gold medal in front of always strong French team. Theo Devard, Quentin Bonnetain and Clement Faure missed the fourth French gold medal only for 0,26 second and took silver. Slovenian team won the sixth medal for the host nation. Nejc Žnidarčič, Tim Kolar and Vid Debeljak took bronze.
