The ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup races should start this year in Prague's Troja on June 9, 2022. The races of the highest international series will return to the Czech Republic exactly one year after the last World cup race in Prague. We will have the opportunity to welcome the first medalists on the Vltava river, which will be decided at the European Championships in Liptovský Mikuláš, Slovakia on May 26-29.
The ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup in Prague-Troja ended with the final of the CSLX extreme slalom race. Home star Vít Přindiš confirmed the current dominance in this discipline and after the European title from Ivrea he also added the victory at the World Cup in Prague.
Jessica Fox from Australia literally won far away in front of the rest of the starting field in the C1 women competition. She was the only one of the top ten to show a clean race, German Herzog finished almost five seconds behind, and Tereza Fišerová, a home racer, finally wins bronze. Viktoria Us fought a lot with the track at the beginning and did not repeat the calm ride from the previous run. She scored four mistakes, lost a lot of time. One mistake was made by the Frenchwoman Angela Hugo.
The very exciting final took place in the last individual competition in Prague's Troja in the canoeists' competition. For the first time in the World Cup race, the Czech competitor Lukáš Rohan reached the medal position and immediately reached the highest place. David Florence of Great Britain finished second, while Slovenian Benjamin Savšek won bronze.
After the women´s category, the Troja artificial slalom course was ready to welcome C1 men´s category. The winner was the Polish national team member Kacper Sztuba, who was the only one to press the time under 98 seconds by a clean ride. As in the case of women, only one of the Czech trio ships advanced to the final - Lukáš Rohan.
Sunday (13) in Prague's Troja belongs to C1 men and women competitions. In the morning semifinals, the best place for the afternoon finals went to British canoeist Mallory Franklin. Of the three Czech ships, Tereza Fišerová qualified for the final.
Saturday's program of the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup in Troja ended with qualifying races in extreme canoe slalom, a new Olympic discipline for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. In the first races, the competitors went individually, the time was especially important. Extreme slalom is ridden on a plastic boat that is heavier than a normal kayak. Competitors go through or go around eight rubber gates. In the middle, the racer still has to handle the Eskimo.
Thanks to the triple Czech participation, the final of the men´s kayak competition was the right culmination of Saturday's individual competitions in Prague's Troja. The kayak competition was won by Jiří Prskavec, the silver goes to the Italian Giovanni De Gennaro and the bronze is surprisingly taken by Mathieu Biazizzo from France.
We have seen extremely strong fights in the men´s and women´s kayak finals. Natalia Pacierpnik of Poland wentthe final ride in an absolutely famous way. She managed a difficult central passage and showed a clean run, recording the best time of the day 102.49 s. Other competitors have already got one mistake after another. Maialen Chourraut from Spain recorded 4 penalty seconds, the German Ricarda Funk was not clear on the gate 3, then she also passed gate 9 incorrectly and a 50-second penalty shone next to her name. Then another mistake was added on gate 16 and the medal hopes for Germany took over halfway through the track.
The kayak semifinals also offered interesting moments. The Slovak Jakub Grigar went perfectly right at the beginning, showed a flawless run and settled for a long time in the lead. With a time of 92.39s, he also set the bar very high and will not be missing in the final. Vavřinec Hradilek was the first Czech kayaker to set off on the track, he did not make a single mistake and after a while of waiting for him, two mistakes of the German Aigner definitely sent him to the finals as well as the home winner Jiří Prskavec and Vít Přindiš.