The 2010 ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Vichy had gotten off to a great start, with fast races and around 47 countries in attendance. Today, the athletes, organisers and the public were treated to some exciting races. With better racing conditions than Friday, many athletes were looking forward to the 1000m finals. Other athletes prepared for the 500m heats and semi finals later in the day.

The weather was chilly as the first Final of the day got underway, the Women’s K1 1000m. The Gold went to Poland’s Beata Mikolajczyk, the Silver going to Bridgitte Hartley (RSA) and the Bronze to Silke Hormann (GER). The next big race was the Women’s K2 and a superb race was taken by Lisa Carrington and Teneale Hatton from New Zealand, with a good start they powered their way to the lead in the final stretch. Slovakia’s Ivana Kmetova and Martina Kohlova made a good run to come in with the Silver medal, with Poland’s Paulina Wiewiora and Magdalena Krukowska swiftly following them to win Bronze.

In the Women’s K1 500m the Gold went to Katrin Wagner-Augustin (GER) with a very assured performance, Anastasia Sergeeva (RUS) missed out on the Gold by the slightest margin and the Bronze went to Terresa Portela. (POR). Self labelled “Slow starter” World Champion Josefa Idem (ITA) was close behind with 4th position.

Next up was the Men’s K1 1000m won by Max Hoff (GER) with a colossal 3:16.936. Newcomer to the ICF World Cups, Aleh Yurenia from Belarus, surprised the crowd with a powerful 3:18.369, coming in second, beating Canada’s Adam Van Koeverden, resigned to third place. Van Koeverden reflected ‘I am happy with my performance. I would like to have had a few easier races as warm up but Max Hoff is in good form, I stayed with him the first 800m’.

On the flowing river fast times were not only restricted to Kayak as the men of the C1 1000m can attest to. A grand success for Germany as Sebastian Brendel won the race. Unfortunately the reigning World Champion Vadim Menkov (UZB) was disqualified as his boat was deemed underweight. Tomasz Wylenzek was promoted to Silver. Jose Luis Bouza (ESP) came in third.

More success for Germany as Martin Hollstein and Andreas Ihle took Gold in the Men’s K2 1000m, closely followed by Vincent Lecrubier and Cyrille Carre (FRA). Bronze went to Louro Leban and Rok Kuk (SLO). The Slovenian boat consists of an Under 23 Canoe Slalom athlete and a World Champion in Whitewater and started paddling together only a year ago in Canoe Sprint.

After a slow and steady start brothers Andrei and Aliaksandr Bahdanovich (BLR) powered their way in the final 250m to take the Gold in C2 Men ahead of Lukas Woszcynski and Marcin Grzybowski (POL). Poland’s second C2 team, Wojciech Tysznski and Roman Rynkiewicz took third place.

Men’s K4 1000m provided Germany with another success, as Marcus Gross, Norman Brockl, Tim Wieskotter and Hendrick Bertz won in 2:48.020. Kirill Lyapunov, Roman Anoshkin, Anton Vasilyev and Konstantin Vishnyakov (RUS) came in with 2:49.655 which secured them second place. Belarus comes in third as Raman Piatrushenka, Aliaksei Alalmasau, Artur Litvinchuk and Vadzim Makhneu finish with a solid 2:50.238.

Germany’s domination continued in the final race of the morning; the Women’s K4 500m with Fanny Fischer, Caroline Leonhardt, K1 500m women’s winner Katrin Wagner-Augustin and Tina Dietze taking the Gold after a close race with Spain’s Jana Smidakova, Beatriz Manchon, Sonia Molanes and Teresa Portela. Right behind the Spanish came Portugal’s Terresa Portela, Joana Vasconcelos, Joana Sousa and Beatriz Gomes, finishing with a creditable Bronze.

The afternoon was filled with the heats and semi finals for the 500m distances with superb performances from all our athletes. Towards the end of the afternoon, an unfortunate storm with heavy rain and wind did its best to dampen the atmosphere, but to no avail. After a strong showing from the Men’s K1, C1, K2, C2, and Women’s K2, the atmosphere was for the finals on Sunday. Everything is set for a strong final day of racing of finals for 500m and 200m (the new Olympic distance).