MONTEMOR-O-VELHO – The Polish athletes won most of the races during the last day of the 7th World University Canoe Sprint Championship and collected a total of 21 medals.
On the first day of competition, the Polish team had already shown its aim for Gold, and they entered the final day with the same spirit. Only Slovakia, Portugal, Italia and Lithuania were able to conquer a top spot on the podium during the final day.
Miroslav Zatko and Lubomir Beno (Lithuania) won the Gold Medal in K2 500 with a small time difference from the Hungarian team (00:00:01.744). “It was a good surprise! It is not our favourite distance but we had a good start and we kept the rhythm right to the title. We are very happy!”, they exclaimed. From Slovakia, Vadim Korobov won the final race for C1 200 and Michele Bertolini starred the only Italian Gold Medal (K1 200).
In the discipline K2 500, Francisca Laia and Maria Cabrita had an unexpected surprise. “The 500m were never our best distance and this year we haven’t been practicing this distance, so we weren’t expecting to win a medal. We did everything well and we had the race of our life.”
Laia took the podium again with the title of World University Champion in K1 200 “in the start line we are all the same, the place we finish depends on the race we make until the end and any mistake during this short 200m can be fatal. I came here to make an assessment of my physical condition and to get good results, and I did it!”
For Mr Kemal Tamer, member of the Executive Committee of FISU, this was a very good championship. “Very well organized and in such a short time. The venues were very good and the athletes are enjoying their stay. I know that some of them are Olympians and we are cheering for them, because if they win a medal, it’s not only good for their country, but for FISU too.”
By the end of the day, 17 finals have been concluded during the last day and Poland was the team that amassed the most medals – 21 in total (18 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze). The Polish team leader, Piotr Grochowski, was amazed by this number: “This is incredible! We were expecting to win, but not this much! This is the result of very hard work, excellent coaches and also we did it because we canoe with joy.”
Portugal is the second country with most gold medals (2) and Italy is the second team with more medals in total (11).
The 7th World University Canoe Sprint Championship ended with the Closing Ceremony where the FISU flag was passed to the hosts of the 8th WUC Canoe Sprint that will take place in Szeged, Hungary, in 2018.
Results
(Source: 7th WUC Canoe Sprint OC)
Related News
So much strength and speed on the Portuguese waters
