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25.9.2026
Fresh from becoming European champion in women’s K1 earlier on Friday, Klaudia Zwolinska immediately put herself in position to chase an extraordinary double at the 2026 Paddle Europe Canoe Slalom Championships in Ivrea.
The Polish paddler produced a clean 101.15-second run to lead the women’s C1 semifinal, finishing 1.28 seconds ahead of Slovenia’s Eva Alina Hocevar and 2.28 ahead of Czechia’s Martina Satkova.
Just hours after winning K1 gold with 94.69, Zwolinska is therefore back at the top of another ranking — this time with a second European title potentially only one run away.
But the final is packed with major champions.
The complete podium from the 2026 World Championships has qualified, Great Britain sends both Mallory Franklin and Kimberley Woods into the medal race, and several of the women who contested the morning’s K1 final will return to the start line in C1.
There was barely time for Zwolinska to absorb her women’s K1 European title before attention turned to canoe. She showed no sign of losing momentum.
Her clean 101.15 was the fastest total time of the semifinal and placed her 1.28 seconds clear of Hocevar.
It continues an exceptional Friday for the Polish athlete.
In the K1 semifinal, Zwolinska had produced the fastest raw time before a penalty left her second. She then corrected that in the final, going clean to win European gold.
Now she has also won the C1 semifinal. The challenge will be to reproduce that level one more time.
Eva Alina Hocevar is another athlete enjoying an exceptionally busy and consistent day.
The Slovenian finished sixth in the women’s K1 final earlier on Friday and then returned to qualify second in C1 with a clean 102.43.
That puts her only 1.28 seconds behind Zwolinska heading into the final.
Hocevar is one of several athletes demonstrating the increasing strength of the women competing across both kayak and canoe disciplines.
And her C1 semifinal performance was even stronger than her K1 result earlier in the day.
Behind the leading two, the margins became extremely small.
Martina Satkova qualified third for Czechia with a clean 103.43, while Switzerland’s Alena Marx was only 0.02 seconds behind on 103.45.
Marx had already come close to the K1 podium earlier on Friday.
She finished fifth in that final after recording a raw time that would have placed her even higher without a two-second penalty.
Now she has another opportunity in C1 — and once again arrives among the quickest athletes.
Great Britain will have two major contenders in the final.
Mallory Franklin qualified fifth with a clean 103.58, while Kimberley Woods followed in sixth with 104.18.
Their progression tells two very different stories compared with K1.
Franklin reached the K1 semifinal but missed the final in 15th place.
Woods experienced an even more difficult K1 competition, being eliminated in Thursday’s heats after penalties pushed her outside the semifinal places.
In C1, however, both have responded strongly.
Franklin is a former European C1 champion and Olympic medallist, while Woods now has the opportunity to turn a difficult K1 campaign into a European C1 medal.
One of the strongest features of the final is that the entire women’s C1 podium from the 2026 World Championships remains in contention.
World bronze medallist Zwolinska leads the semifinal.
World silver medallist and defending European champion Monica Doria qualified seventh with a clean 104.40.
And reigning World champion Tereza Kneblova secured 11th place in 106.41.
Their semifinal positions may be spread across the ranking, but all three return to zero in the final.
That creates the possibility of another direct confrontation between three of the strongest C1 athletes of the season.
Andrea Herzog produced one of the most interesting runs of the semifinal.
The German recorded a raw time of 101.27, only 0.12 slower than Zwolinska’s winning time.
But four penalty seconds increased her total to 105.27, dropping her to ninth.
Her raw speed makes her one of the athletes to watch closely in the final.
The 2024 European champion clearly has the pace to challenge at the front — but the semifinal also showed that precision will be decisive.
Friday’s schedule has underlined the versatility of several of Europe’s leading female paddlers.
Five athletes who contested the women’s K1 final earlier in the day have also qualified for the C1 final:
Klaudia Zwolinska, Eva Alina Hocevar, Alena Marx, Monica Doria and Zuzana Pankova.
Their K1 results varied significantly.
Zwolinska won gold.
Marx finished fifth.
Hocevar was sixth.
Pankova finished eighth.
Doria came agonisingly close to the podium in fourth.
Now all five start again with an entirely new medal opportunity.
Of those athletes, Zwolinska has so far produced the most striking double performance: K1 champion in the morning and fastest C1 semifinalist in the afternoon.
The result was considerably more difficult for the host nation.
Italy won the women’s C1 team European title on Thursday through Marta Bertoncelli, Elena Borghi and Elena Micozzi.
But there will be no Italian athlete in the individual C1 final.
Micozzi came closest, finishing 14th with a clean 107.24, just 0.74 seconds outside the final.
Bertoncelli was immediately behind in 15th after a two-second penalty left her on 107.78.
It is a striking contrast with Italy’s K1 success earlier on Friday, when Lucia Pistoni took silver and two Italian men later reached the podium.
Another notable casualty was Alsu Minazova.
She had been the fastest athlete in Thursday’s C1 heats, but could not reproduce that performance in the semifinal.
A clean 109.26 left her 17th and outside the final.
Miren Lazkano, the 2021 European champion in Ivrea, also missed the cut after four penalty seconds dropped her to 21st.
Marjorie Delassus endured the most difficult run of the semifinal, receiving 100 penalty seconds and finishing 30th.
The 12 finalists are:
Klaudia Zwolinska (POL), Eva Alina Hocevar (SLO), Martina Satkova (CZE), Alena Marx (SUI), Mallory Franklin (GBR), Kimberley Woods (GBR), Monica Doria (AND), Taisiia Pospelova (AIN), Andrea Herzog (GER), Zuzana Pankova (SVK), Tereza Kneblova (CZE) and Doriane Delassus (FRA).
There are established champions everywhere.
Zwolinska has already won K1 gold today and was C1 World bronze medallist this season.
Doria enters as the defending European champion and 2026 World silver medallist.
Kneblova is the reigning World champion.
Herzog is a former European champion.
Franklin is a former European champion and Olympic medallist.
And Woods has already shown throughout her career that she can perform under championship pressure.
That will inevitably be the central storyline of the final.
Only a few hours separate Zwolinska’s two competitions.
She began Friday by taking the women’s K1 European title.
She has now finished first in the women’s C1 semifinal.
Behind her, however, the field is extremely compressed.
Only 3.38 seconds separate Zwolinska in first from Pospelova in eighth, while Herzog’s raw time shows that even an athlete ranked ninth has the speed to fight at the very front.
The comparison with K1 also makes the final particularly intriguing.
Zwolinska has already converted semifinal speed into gold once today.
Hocevar, Marx, Doria and Pankova all have immediate opportunities to improve on their K1 finishing positions.
Franklin and Woods have the chance to completely change the story of their Championships after missing the K1 final.
And the reigning World champion Kneblova starts from 11th knowing that semifinal rankings count for nothing once the final begins.
Klaudia Zwolinska is one clean run away from an extraordinary K1-C1 European double — but with World, European and Olympic medallists throughout the field, the women’s C1 title remains wide open in Ivrea.
© 2021 ECA
