Four women on the podium, silver for Krejci

The third day of the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup in Prague-Troja is all about kayak cross. In the individual time trials, the top spots were taken by Australia’s Jessica Fox and Belgium’s Gabriel de Coster. The Czech team celebrated two medals, thanks to Olga Samkova, who claimed bronze, and Jakub Krejci, who finished one place higher with silver. The afternoon continues with head-to-head knockout rounds.

An unusual situation occurred in the women’s time trials, where Olga Samkova and Slovakia’s Sona Stanovska tied for third place with identical times. “At the finish, they told me I was fourth, so I was a bit disappointed. But in the end, it worked out, and I’m really happy. I felt good from the very beginning and pretty much everything went well. I’ll go into the knockouts wanting to put down my best runs and go as far as I can. Making the final would be amazing,” said Samkova, who won bronze in this discipline at this year’s European Championships. In the end, four women stood on the podium in Troja: Fox, Stanovska, Samkova, and France’s Camille Prigent, who took silver.

In the stacked men’s field of 64 athletes, Gabriel de Coster was the fastest. “I had a good start to the weekend, made the podium in kayak slalom sprint, and although I lost a medal on Saturday due to a 50-second penalty confirmed after video review, I was really hungry for more this morning. This means a lot to me. I’ve had a few difficult seasons without major results, and I feel like I’m finally back,” said the Belgian paddler.

Joining him on the podium were Czech racer Jakub Krejci and France’s Mathurin Madore. “I’m happy I’ll be starting from one of the top positions and can choose my lane. I felt good today, so I hope this helps me shake off the disappointment from the slalom days. I still haven’t gotten over yesterday — I made a mistake on the last gate and I really regret it. It can’t happen again. After the races, I’ll sit down with my coach and evaluate what went wrong,” reflected Krejci on his qualifying run.

All Czech athletes advanced to the afternoon’s knockout rounds. In addition to medallists Samkova and Krejci, the line-up includes Tereza Kneblova, Lucie Nesnidalova, Martin Rudorfer, and Matyas Novak, silver medallist from the most recent World Cup in this discipline.

Photo: Barbora Reichová a Jaroslav Svoboda