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24.9.2026
The women’s K1 heats opened the 2026 Paddle Europe Canoe Slalom Championships with immediate drama in Ivrea.
Slovakia’s Eliska Mintalova produced the fastest run of the morning, while one of the biggest names in the field, Great Britain’s Kimberley Woods, was eliminated after a post-race review changed the final qualification positions.
Mintalova stopped the clock at 84.37 seconds with no penalties, finishing 1.78 seconds ahead of Germany’s Emily Apel. Alsu Minazova was third, while Italy’s Stefanie Horn and France’s Emma Vuitton completed the top five.
The biggest story came after the racing had apparently finished.
Kimberley Woods initially occupied 30th place, enough to take the final semifinal position.
However, a review added a second two-second penalty, on Gate 10. Her final result became 100.73 seconds, dropping her to 34th place and out of the semifinal.
Spain’s Laia Sorribes therefore moved into the 30th and final qualifying position with 99.23.
The elimination is one of the biggest surprises of the opening morning.
Woods carried Bib 1, as the highest-ranked athlete in the ICF World Ranking among the women competing in Ivrea. The final start list placed her third in the world ranking.
She also arrived with one of the strongest recent résumés in the field: bronze in women’s K1 at Paris 2024, another Olympic bronze in Kayak Cross and bronze in women’s K1 at the 2026 World Championships.
One of the leading European title contenders is therefore out before the semifinal.
Mintalova’s victory and Horn’s fourth place also created an interesting historical link.
At the 2022 European Championships in Liptovsky Mikulas, the two athletes shared the women’s K1 European title, both finishing with the same winning result.
Four years later, both are once again near the top of a European Championship ranking.
Horn finished with a clean 86.82, only 2.45 seconds behind Mintalova, and led a strong Italian performance.
Lucia Pistoni finished 14th despite a two-second penalty, while Agata Spagnol qualified 18th. All three Italian women progressed to the semifinal.
For the host nation, it was a very positive start to the individual competition.
Germany also produced one of the strongest collective performances of the morning.
Emily Apel was the standout, finishing second with a clean 86.15, just 1.78 seconds behind Mintalova.
Paulina Pirro finished 21st and Nova Mueller 28th, meaning all three German paddlers advanced.
Germany arrived in Ivrea without defending European champion Ricarda Funk, winner of this event in both 2023 and 2025, but Apel’s second place showed that the German challenge remains very much alive.
Klaudia Zwolinska safely progressed in sixth place.
Her raw time of 85.60 was one of the fastest of the entire session, but a two-second penalty pushed her final total to 87.60.
The Polish paddler remains one of the major names still in contention.
She won the European title in 2024, after taking silver in 2023, and later won Olympic silver in Paris 2024.
Poland did, however, lose its other two athletes. Dominika Brzeska finished 31st, just 0.22 seconds outside qualification, while Hanna Danek was 35th.
That leaves Zwolinska as Poland’s only representative in the semifinal.
Eva Tercelj also returned strongly to a course where she already has significant European Championship history. The Slovenian finished eighth with a clean 88.36.
When the European Championships were last held in Ivrea in 2021, Tercelj took silver in women’s K1 behind Corinna Kuhnle.
Slovenia enjoyed a strong morning overall, with Eva Alina Hocevar finishing tenth and Lea Novak 15th. All three Slovenian paddlers therefore qualified inside the top 15.
Mintalova’s victory was supported by another strong Slovak performance.
Zuzana Pankova finished ninth with a clean 88.96, while Sona Stanovska qualified in 25th. She has become one of the most consistent European performers in recent seasons, taking silver in women’s K1 in 2024 and bronze in 2025.
Slovakia therefore sends its full three-athlete team into the semifinal, led by the fastest woman of the heats.
Czechia also placed all three athletes into the semifinal.
Katerina Bekova finished seventh, Bara Galuskova 12th and Amalie Hilgertova 29th. The score of 88.22 put her less than four seconds behind Mintalova and confirmed another strong Czech presence in the individual events.
France leaves the heats with two athletes through.
Emma Vuitton was excellent in fifth place, while Marjorie Delassus progressed in 17th despite four penalty seconds.
Camille Prigent, however, finished 33rd on 100.35 and missed qualification by just 1.12 seconds.
Great Britain had an even more difficult morning.
Lois Leaver finished 32nd, just 0.37 seconds outside the semifinal, while Woods dropped to 34th after the late review.
That leaves Mallory Franklin as Britain’s only individual semifinalist after she finished 19th with 91.59.
Franklin is no stranger to European Championship podiums, having taken women’s K1 bronze in both 2022 and 2024.
The heats reduced the field to 30 semifinalists, with several clear stories already emerging.
Mintalova is the early benchmark.
Horn has given Italy a strong home start.
Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia and Czechia all qualified their full teams.
Zwolinska remains a major contender.
Tercelj has once again shown her speed on the Ivrea course.
And Great Britain has already lost two of its three athletes, including Woods — Bib 1, the highest-ranked athlete in the field and one of the strongest medal contenders.
The first session in Ivrea has already shown how narrow the margins will be.
© 2021 ECA
