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26.9.2026
Several of the leading names safely progressed to Saturday night’s quarterfinals, but the heats also produced one of the biggest surprises of the Championships as reigning World champion Alena Marx was eliminated in her opening race.
European Kayak Cross Individual champion Kimberley Woods survived a difficult first heat, Klaudia Zwolinska continued her remarkable Championships with another victory, while Lucia Pistoni and Agata Spagnol produced an Italian one-two in front of the home crowd.
The 16 remaining athletes now return under the lights from 20:20, with only the top two from each quarterfinal progressing to the semifinals.
The very first race immediately showed how unpredictable the H2H format can be.
Kimberley Woods entered the bracket as the number one seed after winning the Kayak Cross Individual European title earlier on Saturday.
But she did not win Heat 1.
Instead, reigning C1 World champion Tereza Kneblova took first place, with Woods securing the second and final qualification position. Olga Samkova finished third, while Jessica Duc was fourth after faults at Gates 2 and 6.
Woods therefore remains in the title race, but the result offered an immediate reminder that time-trial rankings count for very little once four athletes share the course.
The biggest shock came only four minutes later.
Alena Marx entered Ivrea as the reigning women’s Kayak Cross H2H World champion and one of the clear headline athletes in the discipline.
Her European title challenge lasted one race.
Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist Angele Hug won Heat 2, with Spain’s Leire Goni taking second.
Oleksandra Horlova finished third.
Marx was fourth — and eliminated.
It is one of the most significant eliminations of the final day.
Marx had finished eighth in the Individual event earlier on Saturday and fifth in Friday’s traditional K1 final, but her H2H European campaign is now over before the quarterfinal stage.
Italy had an excellent result in Heat 3.
Chiara Sabattini won the race, with Czechia’s Katerina Bekova taking the second progression place.
Eva Alina Hocevar, who had reached both the K1 and C1 finals on Friday, finished third and was eliminated.
Kseniia Krylova was fourth.
For Sabattini, fifth in the Kayak Cross Individual event earlier in the afternoon, the strong form continued.
Another major name disappeared in Heat 4.
Camille Prigent had finished fourth in the Individual competition, only 0.06 seconds away from a European medal.
But H2H racing produced a completely different result.
Miren Lazkano won the heat for Spain, while Poland’s Dominika Brzeska took second.
Georgina Cochrane finished third.
Prigent was fourth and eliminated.
The French athlete therefore goes from fourth-fastest in Europe in the Individual format to elimination in the opening H2H round.
The home crowd had plenty to celebrate in Heat 5.
Lucia Pistoni continued her outstanding Championships by winning the race, while teammate Agata Spagnol finished second.
Viktoriia Us took third, with Lena Teunissen fourth after a fault at Gate 2.
That gives Italy two athletes in the same quarterfinal later tonight.
Pistoni has already collected K1 silver and Kayak Cross Individual bronze in Ivrea.
Spagnol now joins her in the final 16.
Heat 6 went to Great Britain’s Lois Leaver, with Monica Doria securing second place for Andorra.
Sona Stanovska finished third, while Svenja Matti was fourth.
Doria therefore remains in contention for another major result after her C1 campaign ended with a difficult final on Friday.
She and Leaver will now meet Pistoni and Spagnol in one of the most intriguing quarterfinals of the night.
Heat 7 produced another significant reshuffling of the field.
European C1 champion Mallory Franklin won the race, with Spain’s Laia Sorribes taking second.
Eva Tercelj finished third.
Emily Apel, the women’s K1 bronze medallist from Friday, was fourth and eliminated.
That means two athletes with major medals from the Championships experienced completely different outcomes.
Franklin continues.
Apel is out.
Tercelj, one of the most experienced athletes in the field, also sees her Championships end before the quarterfinals.
Klaudia Zwolinska continues to find ways to stay at the front.
The K1 European champion and Kayak Cross Individual silver medallist won Heat 8 ahead of France’s Marjorie Delassus.
Alsu Minazova finished third and Andrea Herzog fourth.
Herzog therefore becomes another high-profile athlete eliminated in the opening round.
For Zwolinska, meanwhile, the possibility of another European medal remains alive after what has already been an extraordinary multi-discipline Championships.
The first quarterfinal at 20:20 brings together:
Angele Hug (FRA), Tereza Kneblova (CZE), Kimberley Woods (GBR) and Leire Goni (ESP).
It is an exceptional race on paper.
Hug brings an Olympic Kayak Cross silver medal.
Kneblova is the reigning C1 World champion.
Woods is the newly crowned European Kayak Cross Individual champion.
Yet only two can progress to the semifinal.
At 20:24, Chiara Sabattini meets Miren Lazkano, Katerina Bekova and Dominika Brzeska.
Sabattini and Lazkano both won their opening heats.
Bekova and Brzeska arrive after strong second-place results.
Again, two athletes will disappear.
Quarterfinal 3 at 20:28 has an especially interesting home storyline.
Lucia Pistoni and Agata Spagnol will race against Lois Leaver and Monica Doria.
Italy therefore has two athletes in the same four-woman race.
Both could progress.
Both could also be eliminated.
With Pistoni already one of the stories of the Championships, the race promises to be one of the loudest of the evening.
The final quarterfinal at 20:32 may have the deepest collection of championship form.
Klaudia Zwolinska faces Mallory Franklin, Marjorie Delassus and Laia Sorribes.
Zwolinska is the K1 European champion.
Franklin is the C1 European champion.
Delassus took C1 silver.
Only two of the four can continue.
One or more major medallists from Friday will therefore be eliminated before the semifinals.
The opening round has already transformed the women’s title race.
Alena Marx is out.
Camille Prigent is out.
Emily Apel is out.
Andrea Herzog is out.
Eva Alina Hocevar is out.
Eva Tercelj is out.
But Woods remains.
Zwolinska remains.
Pistoni remains.
Franklin remains.
Hug remains.
Kneblova remains.
The quarterfinals begin at 20:20, followed by the semifinals at 21:00 and 21:04 and the final at 21:25.
By then, 16 athletes will have become four.
And with the lights coming on over Ivrea, the biggest lesson from the heats is already clear: in Kayak Cross, reputations can disappear in a single race.
© 2021 ECA
