The Hungarian competitors won one gold medal and two silver medals on the first final day in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, at the Kayak-Canoe World Championship for numbers not included in the Olympic program.
To begin with, Emese Kőhalmi won a dominant start-finish victory in the individual 1000-meter kayak race. The 22-year-old athlete from the Katalin Kovács Academy was already in the lead in the first meters, and at the halfway mark she had an advantage of about half a boat length over the Belarusian classic, Marina Litvinchuk.
The latter kayaker was the only one who kept up with him, but he also broke away in the hair, and the Hungarian athlete reached the finish line first with a huge advantage.
In a similar number of canoes, Bragato Giada distributed his strength brilliantly. At five hundred meters, the 3-4. he shoveled in place, but then in the second half of the distance he left behind his tiring Chinese opponent. The 25-year-old canoeist from Tiszaújváros could no longer prevent the victory of the Belarusian Alena Nazdrova, but she finished in second place.
In the same way, Adolf Balázs and Dániel Fejes celebrated silver medals in the 1,000-meter final of the canoe doubles. The two contestants - who had previously competed together, but now have just met - fought at the Paris Olympics two weeks ago. They row together in Swedish style, on the right side, despite this, they were able to be at the forefront all the way, and they also managed the distance very well. The gold medal was won by the Russian unit, after a great battle, the Adolfs finished second to the Ukrainians.
The Hungarian unit in the fourth final on Saturday, the pair of Bence Vajda and Tamás Szántói-Szabó (K–2 1000 m) could not repeat their excellent result of last year, the second place, this time they tired in the second 500 m and finished seventh.
The Portuguese duo won the K–2,500-meter mixed race, organized without a Hungarian boat.
The other finals will take place on Sunday, and the 200-meter intermediate races will be held in Samarkand on Saturday.
MTI/ National Sport
Featured image: Bianka Nagy and Ádám Fekete in the canoe 200-meter mixed doubles final at the European Championships taking place as part of the European Games in Krakow on the Kryspinow track on June 24, 2023./MTI/Zsolt Czeglédi
