Slafkovsky defends European C1 title
Slovak canoeist Alexander Slafkovsky showed his mastery in the last event of the 2017 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in Ljubljana – Tacen, Slovenia. He defended his European Champion title he won last year in Slovakia. In women’s kayak final Austrian Corinna Kuhnle became a European Champion.
During the last competition day of the 2017 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in Slovenia the remaining two categories were held. In women’s kayak final Corinna Kuhnle won her first gold at the European Championships. The two-times World Champion was the fastest already in the semi-final. In the final run she had a touch but still managed to cross the finish line one second faster than all the others.
At first is seemed it will be a double win for Austria as Lisa Leitner produced the second fastest time, but was later disqualified because of the boat which was too light. At the end Stefanie Horn picked up silver for Italy and Marie-Zelia Lafont bronze for France.
In the last event of the championships – men’s C1 final – Slovakia won gold and a bronze medal. It was Alexander Slafkovsky who managed to defend his European Champion title from last year’s championships in Liptovsky Mikulaš. He was 2.71 second faster than Thomas Koechlin from Switzerland and another Slovak canoeist Michal Martikan, who was second last year, picked up bronze medal.
Alexander Slafkovsky also won a silver medal at the 2005 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships in Ljubljana, “Twelve years ago it was my first individual medal. It is interesting; this is quite a long time ago. In 2005 I had a medal as well as Pero [Kauzer], so I hoped we will both have it this year. He did not make it yesterday, but I focused on my run. Twelve years ago I had silver, and I knew I can do better.”
The 2018 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships will be held in Prague, Czech Republic.
Official website: www.slalomtacen.com
Results: https://slalomtacen.com/2017-rezultatiresults/
