Olympic champions Balint Kopasz from Hungary and Isaquias Queiroz from Brazil both enjoyed solid work outs by winning gold in non-Olympic events on the penultimate day of competition at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Szeged, Hungary.
Nine gold medals were decided in non-Olympic events on Saturday, with host nation Hungary and China picking up two titles, and Spain, Australia, Poland, Brazil and Sweden taking one win each.
Kopasz won the men’s K1 500, ahead of what is expected to be a hotly contested men’s K1 1000 on Sunday. Likewise, Brazil’s Isaquias Queiroz cruised to the men’s C1 500 gold, 24 hours ahead of the C1 1000.
“I’m very happy, my goal was to look around and get a feeling, and it’s a good preparation for Paris,” Queiroz said.
“I’ve got confidence, I’ve been working a lot, and now the challenge is here.”
Sweden’s Martin Nathell and Melina Andersson won the mixed K2 500, China’s Hao Liu and Mengya Sun the mixed C2 500, Hungary’s Zsofia Kisban the women’s C1 1000, while Alyce Wood from Australia won the women’s K1 1000, an event where she became world champion in 2017.
“1000 metres is never fun, the burn is real, but I’m over the moon with that,” Wood said.
“I won the worlds in 2017 but I haven’t really done the race properly since then, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but all my training has been good and I love getting into that nice pace. As much as it hurt, I really did love it out there.”
Poland’s Oleksii Koliadych took out the men’s C1 200, Antia Jacome and Maria Corbera the women’s C2 200, and China’s Mengdie Yin the women’s K1 200.
Pics by Bence Vekassy
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