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European paddlers once again played a leading role on the world stage as the 2026 Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Championships came to an end in Poznań, Poland.

Across the 36 World Championship events, European athletes – including Individual Neutral Athletes within the Paddle Europe continental representation – collected 71 medals: 26 gold, 20 silver and 25 bronze.

That represents 65.1 per cent of all podium medals awarded during the championships, while Europe accounted for more than 70 per cent of the gold medals.

The final numbers also underline an unusual feature of the Poznań medal table. Although 36 titles were contested, 109 medals were awarded rather than the usual 108.

In the C1 Men 1000m, Hungary’s Daniel Fejes and Czechia’s Martin Fuksa shared the world title after both stopped the clock at exactly 4:07.44. Two gold medals were therefore awarded and no silver.

One day later, Poland’s Anna Puławska and Australia’s Natalia Drobot shared bronze in the K1 Women 500m, both recording exactly 1:48.58.

The championships therefore produced 37 gold, 35 silver and 37 bronze medals.

Hungary leads the overall medal table

Hungary finished as the leading delegation of the combined Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe medal table, collecting 14 medals – five gold, eight silver and one bronze.

Germany matched Hungary’s five world titles and completed the championships with nine medals overall, including five gold and four bronze. Australia followed with four titles and seven medals, while Great Britain also won four gold medals.

China collected three gold, three silver and two bronze medals, while AIN-A finished with two titles and six medals overall.

Portugal was another of the leading European delegations, finishing with two gold, one silver and one bronze. Ukraine collected three medals including one world title, Czechia finished with four medals, while Italy, Denmark, Poland, Georgia and Sweden were also represented among the 2026 world champions.

AIN-A and AIN-B, listed separately in the official competition results, combined for 13 medals – three gold, two silver and eight bronze – all included within the European continental total.

Europe takes almost three quarters of all Canoe Sprint medals

The European dominance becomes even clearer when Canoe Sprint is considered separately.

Across the 24 Canoe Sprint events, 73 medals were awarded as a consequence of the shared gold in C1 Men 1000m and shared bronze in K1 Women 500m.

Europe won 53 of those 73 medals – 72.6 per cent of the entire Canoe Sprint podium.

European paddlers also collected 19 of the 25 gold medals awarded, representing 76 per cent of all Canoe Sprint golds.

Germany topped the Canoe Sprint medal table with five gold and two bronze medals, while Hungary produced the largest overall Sprint haul with 12 medals – four gold, seven silver and one bronze.

Portugal followed with two titles, one silver and one bronze, while Czechia, Ukraine, Denmark, Poland, Italy and Sweden were also among the European delegations to celebrate Canoe Sprint world champions in Poznań.

One of Germany’s biggest victories came in the K4 Men 500m, where Max Rendschmidt, Max Lemke, Jacob Schopf and Tom Liebscher-Lucz took the world title ahead of Australia, with defending champions Portugal completing the podium.

Germany also celebrated victory through Carlotta Loske and Maike Jakob in the C2 Women 500m, ahead of Ukraine’s Liudmyla Luzan and Anastasiia Rybachok and AIN-B’s Anhelina Bardanouskaya and Inna Nedelkina.

The closing afternoon provided another remarkable European statistic. Europe won all four 5000m world titles and 11 of the 12 medals available, with Germany’s Carlotta Loske, Hungary’s Balazs Adolf, Sweden’s Melina Andersson and Portugal’s Fernando Pimenta ending the championships on top of the podium.

Great Britain tops the Paracanoe medal table

The balance was more international in Paracanoe, although Europe still collected exactly half of the medals available.

European paddlers finished the 12-event Paracanoe programme with 18 of the 36 available medals – seven gold, five silver and six bronze.

Great Britain was the standout delegation, topping the standalone Paracanoe medal table with four gold medals and five medals overall.

Hope Gordon was one of the stars of the championships, winning both the KL3 Women 200m and VL3 Women 200m world titles. Her KL3 victory came in a new world-best time of 45.53, only 0.12 seconds ahead of France’s Nelia Barbosa, with Germany’s Felicia Laberer taking bronze.

Charlotte Henshaw also delivered another world title for Great Britain in the KL2 Women 200m, finishing ahead of Hungary’s Katalin Varga and Germany’s Anja Adler.

Hungary’s Peter Kiss and Georgia’s Serhii Yemelianov were also among the European Paracanoe world champions in Poznań.

Europe finishes with 71 medals

Across Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe combined, Europe finished the championships with 26 gold, 20 silver and 25 bronze medals.

Discipline	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	European share
Canoe Sprint	19	15	19	53	72.6%
Paracanoe	7	5	6	18	50.0%
Overall	26	20	25	71	65.1%

The 71 European medals represent 65.1 per cent of the 109 medals awarded in Poznań, while 26 of the 37 gold medals – 70.3 per cent – went to European athletes.

Measured by events rather than individual gold medals, Europe won 25 of the 36 world titles, or 69.4 per cent. The difference comes from the Fejes-Fuksa dead heat, which produced two European gold medals in a single event.

Poznań marks the 3,400th World Championship medal

Poznań also provided a milestone reaching far beyond the results of the 2026 championships.

This was the 51st edition of the Canoe Sprint World Championships, and during the competition the 3,400th medal in the history of the championships was awarded.

At the 3,400-medal mark, European paddlers were responsible for 3,048 of them, compared with 185 for the Americas, 106 for Oceania, 57 for Asia and four for Africa.

Following the final four 5000m podiums and the addition of China’s silver medal in the K2 Women 500m, the historical Canoe Sprint total now stands at 3,413 medals.

Europe’s updated contribution stands at 1,014 gold, 1,018 silver and 1,027 bronze medals – a total of 3,059.

That means European paddlers have won an extraordinary 89.6 per cent of every medal awarded across the history of the Canoe Sprint World Championships.

Continent	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Europe	1,014	1,018	1,027	3,059
Americas	67	56	62	185
Oceania	43	38	25	106
Asia	14	18	26	58
Africa	0	2	3	5
Total	1,138	1,132	1,143	3,413

The scale of that historical dominance was reflected again in Poznań. Europe arrived responsible for almost nine out of every ten Canoe Sprint World Championship medals ever awarded and left Poland with more than 70 per cent of the 2026 Sprint podium places.

From Germany’s five Canoe Sprint titles and Hungary’s championship-leading overall medal haul to Great Britain’s success in Paracanoe, the 2026 World Championships added another chapter to a history in which European paddlers have played a defining role for more than nine decades.

Final medal table – Poznań 2026

A total of 27 delegations won at least one medal during the championships. Hungary topped the overall medal table with 14 medals, while Germany matched Hungary’s five world titles to finish second in the standings.

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Hungary	5	8	1	14
2	Germany	5	0	4	9
3	Australia	4	1	2	7
4	Great Britain	4	0	1	5
5	China	3	3	2	8
6	AIN-A	2	1	3	6
7	Portugal	2	1	1	4
8	Brazil	1	5	2	8
9	Canada	1	2	2	5
10	Ukraine	1	2	0	3
11	AIN-B	1	1	5	7
12	Czechia	1	1	2	4
13	Italy	1	1	0	2
14	Denmark	1	0	2	3
14	Poland	1	0	2	3
16	United States	1	0	1	2
17	Chile	1	0	0	1
17	Georgia	1	0	0	1
17	Sweden	1	0	0	1
20	Spain	0	2	4	6
21	Uzbekistan	0	2	2	4
22	France	0	1	0	1
22	Moldova	0	1	0	1
22	New Zealand	0	1	0	1
22	Serbia	0	1	0	1
22	South Africa	0	1	0	1
27	Japan	0	0	1	1
	TOTAL	37	35	37	109