On the last day of the European Championships Munich 2022 fifteen canoe sprint finals were on the programme. Hungary, Poland and Spain were among those who were the most satisfied after the last competition day.

Hungary started the canoe sprint finals with gold medal of Noemi Pupp who was the winner of women’s K1 1000 metres final. In the final Justyna Iskrzycka from Poland was second and Isabel Contreras from Spain third. The Hungarian national anthem was played after women’s K2 200 metres final, where their crew finished the race ahead of Poland and Germany.

Bálint Kopasz and Bence Nádas were crowned European Champions in men’s K2 500 metres final. Germany won silver medal and Lithuania bronze. In women’s C2 200 metres final Giada Bragato and Bianka Nagy won the European Champion title for Hungary. Spain was second and Germany third.

There was a tie in women’s K1 500 meters final, where two bronze medals were awarded to Slovenian Anja Osterman and Emma Jorgensen from Denmark. The European Champion title went to Anna Pulawska from Poland, while Eszter Rendessy from Hungary finished second.

Anna Pulawska was also a member of golden Polish K4 crew that celebrated the European Champion title over 500 meters. Denmark was second and Hungary third.

The European Championships Munich 2022 concluded with 5000 metres events that were postponed from Saturday because of thunderstorm. Fernando Pimenta (POR), Walter Bouzan (ESP) and Rafal Rosolski (POL) were the best in men’s kayak. Hungarian Emese Kohalmi was the fastest in women’s kayak, winning the title and gold medal. Susanna Cicali from Italy was second and Eva Barrios from Spain third. In women’s canoe Spain’s Maria Corbera recorded a comfortable win ahead of Annika Loske from Germany and Liudmyla Babak from Ukraine.

“We cannot sit back, the field is obviously very strong.”

The Hungarian kayak canoeing team won 14 medals, 7 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze at the European Kayak Canoeing Championships, which ended on Sunday in Munich, five of the podium places – in a 2-2-1 distribution – were in Olympic events.

In his assessment, the federation captain Csaba Hüttner said that they could be fully satisfied, because the events they had won at the World Championships in Canada two weeks earlier had been won again.

“We have won three more and we have also made progress in the Olympic numbers in terms of medals and points. In this year’s world championships, five of our six Olympic champions from last year did not compete, but this young team was able to win the points race at both the World Championships and the European Championships, finishing at the top of the medal table at the European Championships, which is a very big thing,” he said.

He pointed out that the women’s kayak division has also made progress in the Olympic numbers, but of course they are waiting for the return of the experienced competitors who missed this season for various reasons.

“If we can bring back the experienced racers and still teach the youngsters, we will be able to achieve great results,”

he added.

Hüttner said Hungary was back on the map in men’s kayaking in the quadruple sculls – the team finished fourth this time after finishing 11th at the World Championships – and that this was very important for qualification for next year’s Olympics. The captain once again highlighted

Bálint Kopasz, who won the K-1 1000m and K-2 500m with Bence Nádas, and who also doubled in the two pentathlon events at the European Championships.

“This is a historic feat in sport. It is very rare to meet such a professional athlete,” he said.

According to Csaba Hüttner, the canoe pair Giada Bragato and Bianka Nagy, who brought home a total of four medals from the two world championships, have improved a lot this year, are making progress year on year and hope to be in contention for victory in the future.

The national captain has repeatedly said that he sees this year as a trial year ahead of the 2023 World Championship qualifiers.

“We cannot sit back, the field is obviously very strong. We have to make a plan to get the maximum number of quotas next year, even at the expense of results. We have a lot of athletes who can be successful in the five-peat and depending on the way the Games are run, we will need a lot of fresh people in Paris,”

said Csaba Hüttner.