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24.9.2026
The French team completed the course in 90.64 seconds with no penalties, finishing just 0.65 seconds ahead of Czechia.
Italy completed the podium on home water with a final time of 92.09, including two penalty seconds, only 1.45 seconds behind the champions.
The result brought the first day of the 2026 Paddle Europe Canoe Slalom Championships to a close with another extremely tight medal battle.
France arrived in Ivrea with strong recent credentials in this event.
Nicolas Gestin, Yohann Senechault and Jules Bernardet had already taken silver at the 2026 World Championships, behind Great Britain.
In Ivrea, they went one step better.
A clean run of 90.64 proved enough to secure the European title, with Czechia only 0.65 seconds behind.
The victory is also France’s first men’s C1 team European title in the recent 2020–2026 cycle. Between 2020 and 2025, the event had been won by Slovenia, Slovakia, Germany and Great Britain.
Czechia also produced a clean run and finished second on 91.29.
The team of Vaclav Chaloupka, Lukas Kratochvil and Lukas Rohan therefore came within less than a second of the European crown.
Czechia had already taken silver in this event in 2024 and once again showed its depth in men’s canoe.
Kratochvil had also been one of the standout performers in the individual heats earlier in the day, finishing second behind Elio Maiutto.
Italy once again gave the home crowd something to celebrate.
Raffaello Ivaldi, Flavio Micozzi and Elio Maiutto finished third with a raw time of 90.09 and two penalty seconds, for a total of 92.09.
That left the Italians just 1.45 seconds behind France.
The result continues Italy’s strong history in this event on the Ivrea course. When the European Championships were last held here in 2021, Italy also took silver in men’s C1 teams.
For Maiutto, the medal capped an excellent opening day after he had also won the individual C1 heats earlier in the afternoon.
Spain finished fourth with a clean 92.16, only 0.07 seconds behind Italy.
That was one of the smallest gaps anywhere in the team finals.
Miquel Travé, Luis Fernandez and Alex Segura therefore came extremely close to adding another medal to Spain’s recent record in men’s canoe teams.
Spain had previously taken bronze in 2022.
Germany finished fifth with a clean run of 93.77.
Slovakia followed in sixth on 94.21 after two penalty seconds.
For Slovakia, the result meant missing the podium in an event where it has traditionally been very strong. The Slovaks won this title here in Ivrea in 2021 and added silver in 2023 and bronze in both 2024 and 2025.
One of the biggest surprises of the final came from Great Britain.
Ryan Westley, Adam Burgess and Peter Linksted arrived as both the defending European champions and reigning world champions in the men’s C1 team event.
But two penalty seconds left them on 97.11, 6.47 seconds behind France and only good enough for seventh place.
It marked a significant contrast with their recent record after winning the 2025 European title and the 2026 World Championship gold.
Slovenia endured the toughest result among the major contenders.
Benjamin Savsek, Luka Bozic and Ziga Lin Hocevar accumulated 200 penalty seconds, leaving them 11th with a final result of 304.69.
That was a dramatic outcome for a nation with one of the strongest recent histories in the event.
Slovenia won the European title in 2020 and again in 2024, before taking silver in 2025.
The final medal race of the day was decided by very small margins.
France: 90.64.
Czechia: 91.29.
Italy: 92.09.
Spain: 92.16.
Only 1.52 seconds separated the first four teams.
France takes gold, Czechia silver and Italy bronze — closing the first competition day in Ivrea with another home medal and another European title decided by fractions of a second.
France are the 2026 European men’s C1 team champions.
© 2021 ECA
