FOURTH DAY OF COMPETITIONS. HUNGARY A HEAD ABOVE ALL, 19 GOLD TOTAL. ITALY THIRD IN THE MEDALS, 5 MEDALS TODAY. GREAT ENTHUSIASM FROM THE ATHLETES FOR THE OVERALL EXPERIENCE THEY ARE LIVING IN AURONZO DI CADORE.

FOURTH DAY OF COMPETITIONS. HUNGARY A HEAD ABOVE ALL, 19 GOLD TOTAL. ITALY THIRD IN THE MEDALS, 5 MEDALS TODAY. GREAT ENTHUSIASM FROM THE ATHLETES FOR THE OVERALL EXPERIENCE THEY ARE LIVING IN AURONZO DI CADORE.

Fourth day of competitions in Auronzo di Cadore for the ICF Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships, and morning dedicated to the finals. Today truly impressive Hungary, who won 11 gold medals with a truly impressive show of strength.

Agnes Kiss won her second gold medal in the C1 junior 500, on a day where the Magyars took home over half of the gold medals up for grabs.

Second place for Germany, which won 3 gold medals. Tobias Hammer, who already won gold in K2 on Friday,reconfirmed in the men’s K1 1000 U23, beating Danish Thorbjorn Rask by only 4 cents. “It’s fantastic to win here, it’s very difficult, after yesterday’s K2, today’s K1, it’s an incredible feeling”, said Hammer to the microphone of Daniele Scarpa, Olympic champion in Atlanta 1996, here in Auronzo as a reporter.

Germany’s other gold medals came from Caroline Heuser in the junior women’s K1 1000, and Finja Hermanussen and Julius Geisen in the junior K2 500 medley.

Peter Samu and Zolan Hidvegi, Hungarian golds with a victory in the men’s K2 junior 500: “It was really tough, definitely one of the toughest races of my life, so it’s really nice to have won here today,” said Hidvegi.

First gold won for Canada with the C4 500 junior female, China with the C4 500 U23 women, Latvia in the K2 500 junior women and Spain in the C2 500 U23 man.

The enthusiasm of the young paddlers in competing in a natural context such as that of Lake Santa Caterina, so different from what they are used to, and many of them underlined this in the interviews at the end of the races.

For Italy, after yesterday’s full of medals (4 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze), further satisfactions. The top of the podium was missing but the Azzurri still won 5 medals (3 silver and 2 bronze). The first bronze to Sara Del Gratta (fourth personal medal) with Giulia Bentivoglio in the K2 junior 500 (at +0.97 from the Latvian winners). Del Gratta repeats the podium taking the silver in the K2 junior mix 500  with Federico Zanutta, and applying to be more and more the athlete on the cover of the Italian expedition to Auronzo di Cadore.

Bronze also for Marco Tontodonati and Kristian Szela in the Canadian C2 junior 500, behind the Hungarians and Ukrainians.

Great performance in a hard race for Sara Daldoss and Lucrezia Zironi in the K2 U23 500, silver behind the Hungarians Risko and Kiss, and Francesco Lanciotti and Giovanni Penati, already gold yesterday in the double distance of 1000m, also their second behind Hungarians Vajda and Szabo.

Medal table sees an incomparable Hungary (19 gold, 7 silver, 6 bronze, 32 total medals), with Germany overtaking Italy (Germany 4 gold, 6 silver, 5 bronze; Italy 4 gold, 4 silver, 3 bronzes). Follow Spain (2 golds, 3 silvers, 1 bronze) and Ukraine (1 gold, 3 silvers, 4 bronzes), whose presence here should be considered truly exceptional given the complexity and difficulty in which the Ukrainian federation is forced to operate.

Tomorrow, Sunday 9 July, the last 10 finals, from 9 to 10.30, live in Italy on RaiPlay website and delayed on Raisport tv channel 58 at 3pm, as well as streaming on the platform of the International Canoe Federation, Recast, Planet Canoe channel.

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