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Valentyna Kocirova, Cyrian Menuat, Taisiia Pospelova and Mewen Debliquy led the four individual C1 heats during the morning, while France, Czechia and Germany shared the afternoon’s team titles.

The results also highlighted the versatility of several athletes competing in both kayak and canoe, with a number of paddlers producing top performances — and winning medals — across the first two days of the Championships.

Kocirova completes the strongest kayak-canoe double

Czechia’s Valentyna Kocirova produced the fastest run in the Junior women’s C1 heats, completing the course without penalties in 110.17 seconds.

Her teammate Marketa Stepankova followed in second place, 3.75 seconds behind, while Slovakia’s Petra Soskova completed the top three with a total time of 114.92.

Kocirova’s performance followed her second place in Wednesday’s Junior women’s K1 heats, making her the only athlete to finish inside the top three in both boats across the eight qualification events.

Current Junior K1 world champion Barbora Ondrackova also demonstrated her versatility. After leading the kayak heats, she finished seventh in canoe despite six seconds in penalties.

Germany’s Neele Krech was fourth in both K1 and C1, while France’s Margot Lapeze followed sixth place in kayak with fifth in canoe. All four remain in contention for two individual semifinals.

Menuat leads a tightly packed Junior men’s field

France’s Cyrian Menuat headed the Junior men’s C1 heats with a clean run of 95.14 seconds.

Czechia’s Dominik Rezabek finished only 0.43 seconds behind despite receiving a two-second penalty, while Germany’s Pascal Brandenburg placed third in 97.53.

Italy’s Riccardo Pontarollo and Austria’s Milo Oblinger completed the top five, with only 5.22 seconds separating the leading ten athletes.

Germany’s Jakob Ungvari continued his strong performance across both boats. After taking second place in Wednesday’s Junior K1 heats, he finished ninth in canoe.

Slovakia’s Dominik Egyhazy also qualified twice, following third place in kayak with 12th in C1. Oblinger experienced contrasting fortunes, responding to his elimination in K1 with a penalty-free run and fifth position in canoe.

Poland’s Piotr Nalepa claimed the 30th and final place in Saturday’s semifinal.

Pospelova moves from 12th in kayak to first in canoe

Taisiia Pospelova led the U23 women’s C1 heats for AIN, recording a clean time of 103.05 seconds.

Spain’s Malen Gutierrez finished second in 106.99, while Germany’s Paulina Pirro completed the top three with another penalty-free run.

Pirro had already placed fifth in Wednesday’s U23 K1 heats, confirming her status as one of the strongest dual-boat athletes in the women’s field.

Pospelova made an even larger move between the two disciplines, improving from 12th in kayak to first in canoe.

Italy’s Elena Micozzi finished fourth, only 0.04 seconds ahead of Spain’s Nora Lopez, while Joanna Blythe-Shields secured the 30th and final semifinal place for Great Britain.

Debliquy heads another strong French showing

France also led the U23 men’s C1 heats through current world champion Mewen Debliquy.

Debliquy recorded the fastest raw time of 87.41 seconds. A two-second penalty increased his total to 89.41, but he still finished 1.21 seconds ahead of Germany’s Anton Weber.

Great Britain’s Luc Royle took third in 91.14, only 0.04 seconds ahead of Slovenia’s Ziga Lin Hocevar.

France placed three athletes inside the top nine, with Titouan Estanguet finishing eighth and Elouan Debliquy ninth.

Mewen Debliquy had placed ninth in the K1 heats, while Estanguet was tenth. Hocevar also recorded two top-six performances, finishing sixth in kayak and fourth in canoe.

All three will therefore enter the individual semifinal stage having demonstrated their competitiveness in both boats.

France wins a dramatic Junior women’s team final

The afternoon began with a closely fought Junior women’s canoe team competition.

Margot Lapeze, Laurette Laly and Lili Ulmer delivered a clean run of 128.38 seconds, securing France’s third European title of the Championships.

Czechia produced a faster raw time but received eight seconds in penalties. Marketa Stepankova, Valentyna Kocirova and Barbora Ondrackova finished only 0.96 seconds behind to take silver.

Germany completed the podium through Neele Krech, Nova Mueller and Maxi Mueller, finishing third in 145.90.

Czechia takes the Junior men’s title

Czechia claimed gold in the Junior men’s canoe team event through Dominik Rezabek, Jachym Hanzel and Tomas Indruch.

Their total time of 110.07 seconds, including a two-second penalty, placed them 5.07 seconds ahead of Great Britain.

Sid Griffiths, Lewis Arden and Alex Cleator secured silver for the British team, while Jakob Ungvari, Pascal Brandenburg and Kjell Kadyck earned bronze for Germany, only 0.48 seconds behind Great Britain.

France, represented by Theo Chetoui, Cyrian Menuat and Leo Roye, recorded the second-fastest raw time but 14 penalty seconds dropped the host nation to sixth.

Germany wins both U23 team titles

Germany dominated the U23 canoe team competitions, winning both the women’s and men’s European titles.

In the women’s event, Amelie Plochmann, Paulina Pirro and Christin Heydenreich recorded a total time of 128.81 seconds to take gold.

Spain’s Nora Lopez, Malen Gutierrez and Ainara Goikoetxea finished 4.76 seconds behind to secure silver, while Julie Stepankova, Adriana Morenova and Anna Fabianova earned bronze for Czechia.

Great Britain finished only 0.92 seconds outside the medals, while a 50-second penalty removed France from podium contention despite the fastest raw time of the competition.

Germany then completed the double in the U23 men’s event.

Niels Zimmermann, Konrad Ginzel and Anton Weber produced the only penalty-free run among the leading teams, winning the title in 102.40 seconds.

France recorded the fastest paddling time through Elouan Debliquy, Mewen Debliquy and Titouan Estanguet, but four seconds in penalties left the host nation 1.24 seconds behind in silver-medal position.

Spain completed the podium through Alex Segura, Markel Imaz and Marc Vicente, finishing third with a total time of 111.16.

Athletes collecting medals across both boats

Several athletes have now reached the podium in both kayak and canoe team competitions during the opening two days.

Valentyna Kocirova and Barbora Ondrackova added Junior women’s C1 team silver to the K1 team gold they won for Czechia on Day 1.

France’s Margot Lapeze and Laurette Laly improved from kayak team bronze to canoe team gold, while Germany’s Neele Krech and Nova Mueller followed their K1 team silver with C1 team bronze.

In the U23 women’s events, Paulina Pirro moved from kayak team silver to canoe team gold.

France’s Mewen Debliquy and Titouan Estanguet also completed a two-medal start to the Championships, following Wednesday’s U23 K1 team title with silver in the C1 team event.

France remains on top after Day 2

After the eight team events contested across the opening two days, France remains at the top of the medal table with three golds, one silver and two bronzes.

Germany follows with two golds, two silvers and two bronzes, while Czechia has collected two golds, two silvers and one bronze.

Poland, Great Britain, Spain and Slovenia have also reached the podium during the first two days.

The Championships continue on Friday with the four individual kayak semifinals and finals. Thirty athletes will begin each semifinal, but only the fastest 12 will progress to the medal races.

The individual canoe titles will then be decided on Saturday.