World Cup in Prague was launched by canoeists on Friday
Friday qualifications were started by canoeists including three home representatives Tomas Rak, Vitezslav Gebas and Lukas Rohan. The race dominated the Swiss paddler Thomas Koechlin in time of 92.48s, silver medal holder from Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro Matej Beňuš finished second as he gained a two-second penalty, and third place went to Czech Tomas Rak.
"My aim was to somehow go through the qualification round, if possible, clean without touches and to qualify straight to the semifinal. The atmosphere is absolutely amazing here and the fans pushed me forward, "claimed Rak.
The next Czech Olympian Vitezslav Gebas will not miss the semifinals as he qualified from the ninth place. Lukas Rohan had to complete the second round and the first qualification ride did not work out well for him. But he took second place in the heats number two and will not miss the semifinal.
This event was followed by the qualification of the female category C1 with Czech competitors Monika Jančová, Katerina Hoskova and Martina Satková. The first two advanced straight from the first run, then Satková qualified in the second run in the fastest time.
The victory went to Austrian racer Nadine Weratschnig (111.03), second place went to Mallory Franklin from Great Britain and third place belonged to one of the biggest favorites for the overall victory, Jessica Fox.
„I had a penalty and then I kept on very safe the whole way and dind’t want to take any risk because the goal was just to be in top ten or top fifteen,“ Fox commented her performance.
The morning program with warm and sunny weather continued also with men kayakers. Four Czech kayakers advanced straight to the semifinals. Top placement was achieved by Vavrinec Hradilek, who finished fourth. Two other kayakers got into the top ten (Olympian Jiri Prskavec arrived sixth and Vít Přindiš eighth). The Czech quartet was concluded in eleventh place by Ondrej Tunka. The winner Sebastian Schubert of Germany finished in a time of 83.96, second place for Italian Giovanni De Gennaro and Michal Smolen from the United States finished third.
"With what I have trained it is enough, it was not bad. I had a problem up on the course and I was there very tight. But otherwise, I enjoyed it, racing here is always great and I look forward to tomorrow which will definitely be still stormier. "
Pictures: Jan Luxik