A bruised and bloodied Tereza Fiserova won two gold medals for the host nation while Luka Bozic won Slovenia its second gold medal for the weekend on a day when reputation amounted to little at the ICF canoe slalom world cup in Prague on Sunday.
Fiserova won her first gold in the women’s C1 final, and then survived a canoe to the face to win the women’s extreme canoe final in the afternoon. 2019 German world champion Stefan Hengst won the men’s extreme slalom gold.
In the earlier canoe slalom finals, Fiserova and Bozic held their nerve while Olympic and world champions crashed out of the competition all around them. Among the big names who did not make the women’s C1 final were Olympic champion Jess Fox of Australia, and 2019 world title holder Andrea Herzog of Germany.
In the men’s competition, 2016 Olympic champion Denis Gargaud Chanut of France and 2021 world champion Vaclav Chaloupka of the Czech Republic headed the list of athletes who could not make the final.
Fiserova finally brought the capacity home crowd to life with a thrilling win in the women’s C1. As the last athlete on the course, and with the knowledge no Czech had yet won a medal in Prague, Fiserova called on all her local knowledge to record an error-free run.
And she said doing the K1 on Saturday gave her an insight into the course. Usually, Fiserova only contests the C1 at an international level.
“I think doing the K1 helped me, because I knew where the gates were,” she said.
“It’s such a good feeling, winning in front of people who support me, it’s amazing. It was so hard for me because I was starting from the last position, so I was really nervous. It was hard to concentrate during my run, but I did it.
“I don’t even know what I did on my run, but I will go back and watch the video.”
Germany’s reigning world champion, Elena Lilik, posted the fastest raw time but lost two seconds because of a gate touch which pushed her back to second. Martina Satkova gave the Czech crowd more to cheer about by taking the bronze medal.
24 hours after Peter Kauzer broke through to give Slovenia gold in the men’s K1, teammate Luka Bozic made it a golden double with a hard-earned win in the men’s C1.
Bozic last won gold in a full ICF world cup back in 2018 and said he was finally starting to feel good in his boat again.
“It was a perfect day, I’m really happy because my time has come back, and that I was able to make a good clean run again after a long time,” Bozic said.
“Last year I was on the podium, but I didn’t feel good over the season. I was feeling really good during the winter and the first races this year, but in the Europeans and my selection races, I had some problems with my feeling in the boat.
“But now I’m back to my old mood, I am feeling good in the boat and I can keep pushing to the end.”
Frenchman Nicolas Gestin finished second to pick up his first medal at a full ICF world cup, while Olympic bronze medalist Lukas Rohan took third place.
RESULTS
WOMEN’S C1
- FISEROVA Tereza (CZE) 111.80 (0 seconds in penalties)
- LILIK Elena (GER) 112.80 (2)
- SATKOVA Martina (CZE) 113.35 (0)
MEN’S C1
- BOZIC Luka (SLO) 97.75 (0)
- GESTIN Nicolas (FRA) 98.71 (0)
- ROHAN Lukas (CZE) 99.88 (0)
EXTREME CANOE SLALOM
WOMEN
- FISEROVA Teresa (CZE)
- ZWOLINSKA Klaudia (POL)
- FRANKLIN Mallory (GBR)
MEN
- HENGST Stefan (GER)
- CLARKE Joseph (GBR)
- GONCALVES Pedro (BRA)