New success for the Balearic canoeing in the Szeged’s World Cup

The canoeist Joan Antoni Moreno, from Reial Club Nàutic del Port de Pollença, has achieved the gold medal in C2 500 alongside his peer Diego Domínguez, while Alex Graneri, from Real Club Náutico de Palma, has achieved the silver medal in K1 500.

The first international Olympic Sprint event following the Paris Games couldn’t have gone better for the Spanish national team. With a solid core group and a promising new generation of paddlers emerging from the junior ranks, Spain had an outstanding World Cup performance, finishing third in the medal standings with three golds, six silvers, and three bronzes.

On the final day of competition, Spanish boats had many medal chances, although all races, except the 5000-meter finals, which were direct finals, required passing through semifinals.

The first medal of the day came in the C1 200 final, and it was a surprising gold. The paddler from AD Pinatarense claimed victory with a time of 49.02 seconds. Antía finished sixth, 1.88 seconds behind Viktoriia.

“I’m very happy to win the medal. It was a final full of Olympians, but I performed really well,” said the gold medalist after the podium ceremony.”, expressed the canoeist after the podium ceremony.

The second medal of the day was silver, earned by Mallorcan paddler Álex Graneri from the Real Club Náutico de Palma in the K1 500*, finishing just 0.27 seconds behind Hungarian gold medalist Ádám Varga. Fellow Spaniard Adrián del Río finished sixth in the same race.

“This season is going really well, and I didn’t have high expectations for the K1 500 since I hadn’t trained much for it. But I felt great from the start and raced my best ever today,” said Álex.

A highlight of the World Cup was the men’s C2 500 final, featuring a thrilling showdown between two Spanish duos: Diego Domínguez and Joan Antoni Moreno, Reial Club Nàutic Port de Pollença paddler (bronze medalists in the Olympic event last summer), and Daniel Grijalba and Adrián Sieiro,winners of the National Selection.

In the semifinals, Grijalba and Sieiro won their heat, while Domínguez and Moreno finished second in theirs. In the final, Diego and Joan Antoni clinched gold in the final stretch, beating their teammates by just 0.11 seconds, 1:46.68 to 1:46.79.

“There’s incredible depth in this event in Spain,” said Diego Domínguez, now crowned World Cup champion. “The year after the Olympics is always tough. We lived something very special in Paris, and starting like this, with gold in an event full of the best, is honestly overwhelming.”

Next up was the K2 500 final, with Spaniards Enrique Adán and Carlos García Ruiz taking silver. They finished just behind Kurucz and Opavszky, who won with a time of 1:36.93, only 0.73 seconds ahead of the Spanish pair.

“It’s a dream come true. We’re still in shock, but we stuck to the plan and the boat went perfectly, we’re super happy,” said Carlos.

Enrique added, “It’s been a tough year, but getting a result like this after so much effort is really motivating.”

“This boat can only improve,” said the duo. “It’s new, and we’ve only been together for a short time. We’ve qualified for the European and World Championships, and we’re going all in,” said the Madrid-born and Seville-born paddlers.

The afternoon session was also productive. Of four events, Spain claimed two more medals: Silver for María Corbera in the C1 5000, finishing behind Hungary’s Cosorba by over 21 seconds and nearly a full minute ahead of the next competitor. Fellow Spaniard Ana Cantero finished fifth. Silver for Jaime Duro from Pontevedra in the men’s C1 5000, finishing 16 seconds behind Cuban winner Pelier Cordova. Diego Domínguez placed sixth in this race.

However, Spain missed out on medals in the K1 5000 finals. In the women’s race, Estefanía Fernández finished fifth and Miriam Vega Eighth. In the men’s event, Walter Bouzán narrowly missed the podium in fourth, while Paco Cubelos from Talavera finished ninth.