Graneri and Moreno, going for the finals of the World’s Sprint Championship

Spain has achieved, on the first day of competition of the World’s Sprint Championship, which will take place up until August 24th in Milan’s Parco Idroscalo, getting three canoes in the finals for the medals, to which three paracanoe ones must be summed. Of the paddlers who have achieved going to the finals, we must highlight Majorcan Álex Graneri, from Real Club Náutico de Palma, and Maria dels Àngels Moreno, from Reial Club Nàutic del Port de Pollença.

The firsts in getting to a final were the K4 500 boys, a test in which Del Río, Álex Graneri, from Real Club Náutico de Palma, Arévalo and Germade achieved the series victory, which takes them to fighting for the gold next Friday 22nd at 3:11 p.m. “We’ve felt really well, a harsh regatta during the first contact with the area and we are very happy”, Adrián Del Río affirmed. On his behalf, the debutant on this olympic test in a world’s competition, Alex Graneri, had good intentions, “It’s my first Senior world championship in an olympic ship and with good sensations, I think that on Friday’s final we can do it very well”. For veteran Rodrigo Germade, the experience says that there’s still a margin of improvement, “A good start of championship, now we have to wait for Friday so that we can give a step forwards and show out best version, I think we have a good level and we will try to show it”, while Carlos Arévalo knows the importance of kicking off in this way, “A good start of competition where we’ve had good sensations, we look forward to entering first to avoid the semi-final and we’ve fulfilled the objective, there are things to improve facing the final and working for that to carry out the objective of the yean, for which we are very thrilled”.

The second ship that has achieved the ticket to the final was the C2 500 of Majorcan Maria dels Àngels Moreno, from Reial Club Nàutic del Port de Pollença, and Victoriia Yarchevska. The Spanish pair achieved the first place of the series and will avoid the semi-final, to directly go to the regatta for the medals next Friday 22nd, at 3:25 p.m. “We’ve achieved making our departure the way we had planned. At the end we’ve achieved keeping up in the first position until the end and keeping the medium rhythm up and we’re already on the final”, the Majorcan affirmed after the series.

The third Spanish boat that has achieved the direct pass to the final A, is the one of Male C4 500 of Gruijalba, Jácome, Fontán, Sieiro. The Belarusian swayed in their series just by 3 hundredths and set sail happily, both satisfied and with clear ideas facing the final of Saturday 23rd at 3:56 p.m, “We will go for the gold, the sensations have been very good, and we have all the capacity to win this test”, all the protagonists said at the conclusion of the regatta.

In addition to these three team boats, directly qualified to the final, there were also good performances in the area of Milan. Manuel Fontán opened fire in the Championship, which in its C1 500 width he entered on fifth place in this match to classify for the semi-final today, August 21st, where he will set sail from the 2nd street.

Afterwards, the K4 500 girls that achieved entering in the series final goal in third position behind Belarus arrived, which competes with a neutral flag and Slovakia’s one. Ouzande, Fernández, Val and Pardo will have to go through the semi-final, but they know that they have a good improvement margin. Ouzande: “It has gone really well, we’ve faced a boat that had not competed in the whole year (the Bielorussians), a strongboat , we had the rest under control, but this one escaped our reach and in the end we could not surpass them”. 

Another one that won his series, even if this test does not have a direct ticket to the final, was Pablo Graña in C1 200. The one of Rodeira de Cangas did not give option to his series rivals and took the victory in that same series. The sound of semi-finals will take place today, August 21st, at 11:45 a.m.

In the afternoon’s journey, María Corbera, from Madrid, achieved the second place in the CA 500 test, so she will have to go through semi-finals, Friday 22nd at 9:40 a.m. Pablo Crespo will do something similar, even though the one from Ciudad de Pontevedra calculated his place really well in the test. In his C1 1000 series, and in the last moment of the test he yielded to Moldavian Tarnovschi to get the third place in a test in which Fuksa won. The one from Pontevedra awaits a more affordable semi-final this Friday 22nd at 10:03 a.m., facing the final, on Saturday 23rd at 2:48 p.m.

In one of the queen tests of the world champs of the Olympic Sprint, the Male K1 1000, Roi Rodríguez qualified for the semi-final after finishing third in his series. A K1 1000 that is surrounded by great names and achieving a place in the A final, will mean making, already in the semi-finals, medal worthy results. He will fight for the position in the final for the metal on Friday 22nd, at 10:45 a.m.

The only woman that has had to go out at water twice this first day of competition to fight in two different tests, has been Duryus Kayak Zamora Tecozam Laura Pedruelo. In the morning she achieved the pass to the K1 1000 semi-final after finishing in third place. In the afternoon it was the moment of the K1 500 series, where her fifth plaze will also give her a space in the semi-finals.

The last ones competing before giving the big step to the series of Paracones, were the C2 200 pair formed by Elena Gómez-Millán and Claudia Couto. It was not their best test, just as they recognized at the end of it, but the seventh place achieved gives them a places in the semi-finals and they know their level will improve before Friday.

Regarding Paracanoe, Araceli Menduiña and María Jiménez in KL3 as well as David González Mella in VL1, second for Araceli and thirds for María and David in their series, they achieved a ticket for the final for the metals, while Carlota Blanca (KL2) and Adrián Mosquera (VL3) will have to go through the round of semi-finals.