Canoeing; Double gold for France on final day in Nanjing

Nanjing, August 27, 2014: France won two the four medals on offer in the canoe-kayak obstacle slalom at the Nanjing Canoeing Course on Wednesday.

In rainy conditions, Lucas ROISIN (FRA) was the first to win gold for France in the men’s C1. ROISIN beat Robert HENDRICK (IRL) by less than a second to capture the title. HENDRICK won the silver and Slovakia’s Marko MIRGORODSKY the bronze.

In the next race, the K1, Camille PRIGENT (FRA) defeated YAN Jiahua (CHN) by just over than half a second to claim France’s second gold of the day.

PRIGENT said she was happy that her teammate ROISIN won too.

“It’s perfect because it’s an individual sport but we are also happy when a teammate wins a gold medal with you. It’s better,” she said.

YAN won the silver medal and Amalle HILGERTOVA (CZE) took the bronze beating her rival and friend Selina JONES (GER).

HILGERTOVA said it is hard to compete against a friend when only one of you is going to win a medal, “It’s really hard. You want to win, but on the other side, you don’t want to win because it’s your friend and you don’t want her to be sad. It’s really strange.”

In the C1 women, Nadine WERATSCHNIG (AUT) won her final by more than two and a half seconds against Martina SATKOVA (CZE). WERATSCHNIG was the dominating force throughout the competition. The Austrian won her semifinal with ease too, almost 12s faster than Birgit OHMAYER (GER), who ended up winning the bronze medal.

WERATSCHNIG, who had only been training on this course for three weeks like many of the other competitors , said her win was incredible, “It’s the greatest success I have ever had. It’s the best.”

Anze URANKAR (SLO) was the surprise winner in the men’s K1, much to the delight of the Slovenian spectators in the crowd. The only race he had won prior the final was his semifinal against Paul Sunderland (GBR).

The Slovenian beat Jakub GRIGAR (SVK), who had only lost one other race before the final. GRIGAR took the silver and China’s HUANG Song, who started strong winning the qualification heats, won the bronze.