Harsh weather on the last day of Canoe Sprint World Cup at Maty-ér — Szeged canoers among gold medalists
Start of the men's K1 5000 race at the ICF Canoe World Cup at the Szeged Olympic Center on Sunday, May 14. Photo: Kovács Tamás / MTI
The ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Cup in Szeged — the first round of the 2023 world cup series — ended on Sunday, May 14, amidst harsh weather conditions.
As the excitement grew on the last day of the world cup, canoers faced challenging weather conditions with temperatures around 15 degrees Celsius, cold and strong winds, and rain at the Szeged Olympic Center at Maty-ér. The 5k races included five portages, adding an extra challenge for all the athletes.
Canada's Katie Vincent grabbed two first places on Sunday, arriving on top of the podium in both the women's C1 500 and the C1 5000, thus finishing the weekend with a total of four medals.
In the mixed C2 500 Kazakhstan's Sergey Yemelyanov and Rufina Iskakova took the gold, while in the mixed K2 500 Australia arrived at one-two, with Alyssa Bull and Jackson Collins grabbing the first place. “K2 mixed events are the most fun events I have ever done, so it felt really good to get out there and be competitive, and have a one-two finish as well,” Collins said after the race.
Hungary's Balázs Adolf won the men's C1 5000, and Denmarks's Mads Pedersen finished first in the excitement-filled men's K1 5000. Estefania Fernandez from Spain took the gold medal in the women's K1 5000-meter race.
Two more gold medals were taken by team Hungary on Sunday. MVM Szeged's canoe athletes Bence Nádas and Sándor Tótka won the men's K2 500, while Dávid Korisánszky and Ádám Fekete took the gold in the men's C2 500, an event which will replace the C2 1000-meter race at the Paris Olympics. “It was a very tough race, but I think that we controlled it throughout,” said Fekete.
Paracanoe also brought plenty of excitement. On the final day of the world cup, Great Britain's Stuart Wood returned to the top of the podium after a battle with cancer, arriving first in the men's VL3, overtaking Unkraine's Vladyslav Yepifanov who arrived second, and Australia's Curtis McGrath who finished third.
France's Nelia Barbosa took the gold in the women's KL3 after what she called a "very stressful week". Great Britain's Laura Sugar took the silver and Germany's Felicia Laberer took the bronze.
In the women's KL1, Ukraine's Maryna Mazhula arrived first leading the race from start to finish. Katherinne Wollermann from Chile arrived second, while Paralympic champion Edina Mueller arrived third.
At the end of the world cup weekend, Hungary finished on top of the medal table with 11 medals — 4 gold, 2 silver, and 5 bronze — of which three first (men's K1 1000 m, K2, and C2 500 m) and two third (men's K1 1000 m and K4 500 m) places were Olympic races. In paracanoe, Great Britain finished first with 5 gold, 3 silver, and 1 bronze, a total of 9 medals.
Detailed results and video replays can be found on the International Canoe Federation's website.
