Four medals in the morning session of the first Kayak World Cup competition in Szeged in Szeged were won by the Polish national team – bronze in the Olympic 1000 meter competition in C1 was won by Wiktor Glazunow.

Saturday’s competition on the Szeged track started with the B finals. Amelia Braun and Katarzyna Szperkiewicz were the first to swim at this stage of the competition, taking 4th place in the C2 500 meters, losing to duets from Cuba, Moldova and Great Britain. The Poles dominated the competition in K1 over the same distance. Karolina Naja won the B final and Anna Puławska finished third. The two ladies were separated only by the Spanish Isabel Contreras. Rafał Rosolski did much worse in the K1 1000m B final. The Pole was only 7th.

Sylwia Szczerbińska and Julia Walczak represented us in the first Polish A final in Saturday’s Women’s C2 500m (Olympic competition). The Polish women, starting from the extreme track, had a difficult task. They got off to a good start, but with every yard they were losing to the leaders and eventually finished in 8th place. The Chinese won ahead of the Spaniards and Canadians.

In the final of the non-Olympic C2 competition over 1000 meters, two Polish crews competed – Dominik Nowacki and Łukasz Witkowski and Juliusz Kitewski and Krystian Hołdak. The first of the pairs did much better, finishing the competition on the second step of the podium with a time of 3:49.62. The Poles lost to the Romanians by 1.5 seconds and they beat the Moldovans by more than a second. Kitewski and Holdak finished the competition in 5th place.

We also had two medal hopefuls in the women’s K1 1000m race (non-Olympic competition), where we were represented by Anna Puławska and Justyna Iskrzycka – both Polish women were among the favorites and did well. From the start of the race, Isabel Contreras put a lot of pressure on and she won in 4:09.25 with a certain advantage over Iskrzycka and Puławska, who took 2nd and 3rd places respectively, even though the two Poles were separated by no less than 3.5 seconds.

The morning session for Biało-Czerwony ended with the final of the 1000 meters C1 for men – this is an Olympic competition. In the final in Szeged, we were represented by Wiktor Glazunow and Łukasz Witkowski. And we could enjoy this day with another medal. Viktor Glazunov sailed very well. It is true that he lost a lot against the winner Catalin Chirili from Romania and Conrad Scheibner from Germany, but the Pole’s third place is a very good prognosis for the future. Witkowski took 9th place.

Final A with the participation of the Poles:

C2 500m women:
1. Shixiao Xu / Mengya Sun – China – 2:01.34
2. Antia Jacobbe / Maria Corbera – Spain – 2:02.23
3. Sloan Mackenzie / Katie Vincent – Canada – 2:02.45
8. Sylwia Szczerbinska / Julia Walczak – Poland – 2:04.75

C2 1000 meters men:
1. Ilie Sprincean / Oleg Nuta – Romania – 3:48.11
2. Dominik Nowacki / Lukasz Witkowski – Poland – 3:49.62
3. Oleg Tarnovschi / Mihai Chihaia – Moldova – 3:50.72
5. Juliusz Kitewski / Krystian Hołdak – Poland – 3:51.59

Women’s K1 1000m:
1. Isabel Contreras – Spain – 4:09.25
2. Justyna Iskrzycka – Poland – 4:10.26
3. Anna Puławska – Poland – 4:13.79

C1 1000 meters men:
1. Catalin Chirila – Romania – 3:55.10
2. Conrad Scheibner – Germany – 3:57.06
3. Wiktor Glazunov – Poland – 3:58.58
9. Lukasz Witkowski – Poland – 4:32.67