Portugals’s Federico Alvarenga claimed a historic gold medal in kayak cross at the Pyrenees Cup in La Seu d’Urgell over the weekend.
Counting as an International Canoe Federation Canoe Slalom World Ranking event, the win was Portugal's first-ever in the new Olympic event at an international competition.
Earlier this year, the Portuguese Canoe Federation held a demonstration of kayak cross before announcing plans to host the first National Championships in the event this year.
Alvarenga's win in the final, where he beat silver medallist Gael Adisson of France and bronze medallist Spaniard Manuel Ochoa, will be a great motivation as the country is committed to developing kayak cross.
The women's final saw the experienced Olympic medallist Maialen Chourraut of Spain pip compatriot Nuria Vilarrubla and Andorra’s Monica Doria.
Earlier, the Rio 2016 gold medallist won the K1 final with a timing of 87.91, as Dominika Brzeska of Poland took silver and Doria bronze.
In the men's K1 final, Miquel Trave, who has fond memories from the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup Final here, crossed the line first in 77.97.
Swiss star Martin Dougoud on 78.04, and Italian Xabier Ferrazzi on 80.07 took silver and bronze, respectively.
Trave went on to do the K1-C1 double as the hosts enjoyed a successful tournament.
In the C1 final, his performance of 81.72 was enough to get the better of compatriot Luis Fernandez who took silver in 84.35. Luka Bozic of Slovenia completed the podium, clocking 85.17 for bronze.
Doria continued her dream run by clinching the women's C1 title in 90.88, beating Spanish silver and bronze medallists Klara Olazabal and Miren Lazanko, respectively.
Chinese Paris 2024 Olympians star on home waters
The China Open, another ICF world ranking event, was held simultaneously in Nan'an as Paris 2024 stars took the men's and women's K1 titles.
Xin Quan was a cut above the rest, clocking 85.87 to win the top prize ahead of compatriots Zhengchao Zhao on 93.10 and Jiahao Zhang on 93.16.
In the women's K1 final, Shiting Li faced tough competition against Shunfang Wan and Ye Ren. Li, however, emerged victorious in 102.08, beating silver medallist Wan and bronze medallist Ren, who recorded timings of 102.26 and 102.92, respectively.
The C1 finals also saw all-Chinese podiums with Liang Shu's run of 96.06 enough to beat Peng Zhang and Xiaoxu Shi in the men's category and Jie Yang, with a timing of 100.35 beating Gaoyi Liu and Juan Huang among women.
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