Hungarian paddlers won a total of 15 medals - seven gold, five silver and three bronze - to finish as the best nation at the 2024 FISU World University Championship Canoe Sports in Montemor-o-Velho.
The event that was held from August 21 to 24 in Portugal saw Poland finish second with six gold medals while Italy was the next best nation with five titles.
Hosts Portugal stood on top of the podium four times and Czechia rounded off the top five with three gold medals.
The first triumph of the tournament went to Katarzyna Szperkiewicz from Poland in the canoe single 200m final, with a timing of 50.991.
A few weeks ago in Paris, Szperkiewicz reached the quarter-final in the same event at the 2024 Olympic Games.
The Portuguese opened their account thanks to Andre Moreira and Pedro Casinha, who teamed up to bag the kayak double 200m title in 33.559. Ines Penetra and Beatriz Fernandes added to the hosts’ haul by winning the canoe double 200m gold in 48.109.
The kayak single 200m final saw Italian Riccardo Lonigro cross the line first, clocking 37.309. Petr Tettinger ensured Chechia got their hand on a title, outclassing everyone in 43.087 in the C1 200m final.
Yeray Garcia and Diego Gonzales helped Spain to finish first in the canoe double men’s 200m final. Garcia continued his run on day two by winning a silver in the canoe double 1000m with Pedro Torrado.
Czechia’s Tomas Sobisek was the star in the men’s kayak single 1000m, beating Germany’s Simon Weymann for the title in 3:39.196.
Poland enjoyed success across 1000m in the men’s canoe single and the women’s K1 thanks to Adrian Klos and Weronika Marczewska, respectively.
After the C2 200m gold, Fernandez was sensational in the canoe single 500m, winning the title by more than one and a half seconds against Hungarian Borbala Zagyvai.
Balint Kollek and Gergo Rumi made sure that the Hungarians had a strong finish, cruising to the gold medal in the kayak single 500m in 1:38.980 and C1 500m in 1:51.959 respectively.
Slovakians, with a timing of 1:36.187, won the kayak four women’s 500m title, led by the brilliant Katarina Pecsukova, who had earlier won the kayak single 5000m title.
The men’s kayak four 500m gold went to Poland in 1:218.4, with world junior silver medallist Jaroslaw Kajdanek, who also impressed at the 2024 ECA Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint European Championships, playing a crucial role.
Pictures by FISU.
