Kazakhstan dominated the 2025 Asian Canoe Slalom Junior and U23 Championships in Pattaya, winning six gold medals, including the team events as kayak cross made its debut.
The Central Asian nation enjoyed a clean sweep in the U23 women's C1, with Anastassiya Ananyeva leading the charge and taking gold in 102.44.
Vlada Taradanova on 111.53 and Anastassiya Noskova on 113.55 bagged the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
In the U23 men's C1 final, Jung-Cheng Wu of Chinese Taipei cruised to gold, more than five seconds faster than Sherzod Kurbanaliev of Uzbekistan in 85.87. China's Xu Liu finished third in 89.12.
The Kazakhs also stood out in the U23 men's K1, thanks to Imangali Mambetov clinching the title in 75.39 and compatriot Vladislav Ryabko getting silver in 79.41.
The battle for third place was close between Japan and Chinese Taipei as Daisuke Neshime did enough for the former to share the podium.
The hosts enjoyed the U23 women's K1 final courtesy of Jaruwan Niamthiong of Thailand. Despite a two-second penalty, Niamthiong was almost five seconds faster than silver medallist Yekaterina Tarantseva of Kazakhstan, who clocked 90.19.
Momoka Nagasu joined Neshime to add to Japan's tally by taking bronze in 91.76.
Japan secured a double in the U18 K1 as Teppei Saito and Mine Onozawa won gold in the men's and women's finals, respectively.
Onozawa was a class apart, cruising to the title with almost a 24-second difference from second-placed Viktoriya Kvashnina of Kazakhstan in 112.16. Another Kazakh Darya Pastushenko took bronze in 122.24.
Alexandr Korobov of Kazakhstan in 85.19 and Hung-Yu Chu of Chinese Taipei in 85.31 took silver and bronze, respectively, in the U18 men's K1 final.
China and Thailand topped the standings in the U18 women's and men's C1 races, respectively.
Despite an eight-second penalty, China's Ting Yang clocked 107.76 to take the gold medal, followed by Pallavi Jagtap of India and Wanwisa Krasaetho of Thailand.
The men's final was a tight one, with Thailand's Nantipat Ongchit pipping Hsin-Kuang Tseng of Chinese Taipei for the title in 89.16. Ibrokhimjon Nosirjonov of Uzbekistan took bronze in 91.17.
The U18 men's and women's K1 team races had the same podium, with Kazakhstan coming out on top, followed by India and Thailand.
The U23 women's C1 team title also went to Kazakhstan, while Japan took the women's K1 team gold medal.
Japan triumphed in the U23 men's K1 team race too, with Thailand and Uzbekistan completing the podium places while Chinese Taipei beat Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan for the U23 men's C1 team title.
The competition in Thailand also saw kayak cross, the discipline that captured the imagination of fans at the Olympic Games in Paris, make its debut at the Asian Championships.
Korobov returned to finish first in the U18 men's kayak cross final and Neelaphat Niyomdach of Thailand added to the hosts' gold-medal tally among women.
In the U23 kayak cross final, China reigned supreme with Xingzhou Ming and Yuhan Zhou winning the men's and women's titles, respectively.
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