• Saturday morning was action-packed as six FISU World University Canoe Sprint Championship 1000-metre finals were held on the Holt-Tisza in Szolnok, Hungary.

• The Hungarian host team gathered three gold medals, a silver and a bronze. In addition to the hosts, Australia, Belarus, the Czech Republic and Poland each won a world championship title. The latter tied for the first place with a Hungarian crew in C2 1000m.

The Australian Simon McTavish easily won the first final of the championship, finishing almost 3 seconds ahead of Richárd Alfréd Doba for the men’s K1 1,000m title. Following Doba for third was Ihar Baicheuski of Belarus.

The Australian strongman Simon McTavish looks like a double gold medal contender in the Men’s K1 boat after running away with the world university championship title in the 1,000m; he has the 500m coming Sunday  

With the turn to the solo battle in the C1 discipline over 1,000m, the Hungarian contestant Bence Balázs Dóri showed a similar dominance as the Australian in the longest canoe event at these championships. The Hungarian student of the University of Physical Education shot out to an early lead over his Belarusian rival Viktar Halaliuk to earn the gold medal by a gap of more than two seconds, with the Czech student-athlete Jakob Brezina finishing third.

 Bence Balázs Dóri expressing the emotions of crossing the finish line first at the 2018 World University Canoe Sprint Championship

“The Belarusian boy surprised me because he had set a much slower speed in the qualification heat and his pace changes had been less powerful. But in the end I felt the power and thought this should be enough to clinch the first place” said the Hungarian canoer after the race.

 The Men’s K2 1,000m final was a showdown between Hungary and Germany. The Hungarian duo of Kornél Béke and Péter István Gál outlasted Germany’s Pflugfelder and Schultz.

In K2 1000m, the German unit had the best start. Only the Hungarians, Kornél Béke and Péter István Gál could keep the pace with the duo of Pflugfelder and Schultz. The Hungarians took the lead after the opening few hundred metres to win the second gold medal for the hosts by a half boat. The Italians completed the podium with their third place showing.

“We knew the Germans would go well. Our plan was to try beating them of pace and we managed to do so because however they strengthened, they could not get closer to us. We paddled the course just as we had practiced,” said Kornél Béke, a student of the University of Physical Education in Hungary.

 In the canoe doubles, the Polish duo of Aleksander Kitewski and Grzegorz Brynski pulled out the day’s most tightly-contested victory of the day over Hungary

In the race of canoe doubles, the Polish and the Hungarians were in intense competition, starting from the opposite edges of the course. Rivals lagged several seconds behind them. After crossing the finish line, the Polish squad was announced the winner first. Finally, following the analysis of the photo-finish, a dead heat was declared between the two boats.

“We made a good start and had a very strong travelling speed together with the Hungarians and then there was a huge battle towards the finish line. I am happy that we managed to win” said the Polish Aleksander Kitewski who became gold medallist as the teammate of Grzegorz Brynski.

In the race of men’s kayak fours, the Belarusian boat earned a start to finish victory. Ilya Fedarenka, Ivan Kupryienka, Aliaksei Misiuchenka and Kiryl Nikitsin won in front of the Czech and the Polish fours.

The Czech Republic quartet of Simon Hajek, Sebastian Maizner, Jakub Brezina and David Macháček celebrate after their win in the c4 1,000m 

In C4 1000m, the final was all about four squads: Czechs, Ukrainians, Hungarians and the Polish. The world championship title was won in a great battle by the Czech Republic boat composed of Simon Hajek, Sebastian Maizner, Jakub Brezina and David Macháček in front of the Ukrainians. Hungarians and the Polish fought for third place, and the bronze medal finally landed with the hosts.

The competition continues with the 200-metre qualification heats on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday’s closing day of the championship, 22 finals will be held in the 500 and 200 metres amongst the various canoe and kayak boat pairings.

WUC Canoe Sprint start lists can be found here. Live timing and results can be found here. 

Watch the 1,000m finals