Soča river delivered thrilling action during the Downriver of the World Rafting Championships - Junior & U23: Downriver.
The teams started this morning at 9 from the whitewater park in Solkan, one team every minute, racing against the clock in the most physically demanding discipline. The 4 kilometers run awarded the first points of the event. Here you can find the results of the 5 categories.
U23 WOMEN
The Italy 1 team (Giulia Liuzzo, Giada De Bon, Maria Martini, Nina Casci) delivered a commanding performance, finishing with a time of 30:44.57, over a minute ahead of second place. Czech Republic 1 (Kristýna Znamenáčková, Sára Hrdličková, Rozárie Švehlová, Kateřina Rutarová) secured silver with 31:46.69, while Japan 1 (Sayaka Kamitani, Yuna Sera, Kaede Yamaguchi, Saki Ota) rounded out the podium with 33:10.62.
U23 MEN
Croatia’s men (Petar Habek, Janko Presečki, Damjan Hohnjec, Josip Slonjšak) proved to be the fastest in the category, storming to gold with a time of 28:40.63. The Czech Republic and Türkiye athletes followed in a closely fought battle, respectively for silver and bronze: Czech Republic 1 (Pavel Drastich, Adam Vyroubal, Jakub Vyroubal, Tomáš Raděj, Vitězslav Ručka) stopped the chronological at 29:52.94 and Türkiye 1 (Emirhan Aksoy, Ahmet Raşitoğlu, Hamza Karabulut, Yavuz Efe Güngör, Oğuz Avcı) at 29:56.72.
JUNIOR WOMEN
In a tight junior women’s race, France 1 (Charlotte Levacon, Mathilde Hostyn, Kaéna Baylacq, Jeanne Lafitte) clinched gold with a time of 32:22.44, narrowly defeating Italy 1 with a gap of 10 seconds: 32:33.98 granted a solid silver to Viola Gambella, Laura Labroni, Alejandra Gazzola, Alessandra Conti. Third step of the podium, with 34:03.18, goes to Kamila Dlesková, Zuzana Zetová, Barbora Samšiňáková, Evelin Rampasová, Natálie Lencová representing Czech Republic.
JUNIOR MEN
Matteo Lancellotti, Luca Liuzzo, Giacomo Schettino, Duccio Boscia (Italy 1) not only won the U19 category, but posted the fastest overall time of the day, showcasing an incredible endurance. Second place goes to Czech Republic 1 (Tomáš Znamenáček, Jakub Hanuš, Vojtěch Slušný, Aneta Krejčíková, Ondřej Procházka) with 29:18.27 and Türkiye 1 brings a bronze medal home with Egehan Arslan, Baran Akın, Tolga Mert Yazıcıoğlu, Efe Furkan Küçük, Mustafa Kaan Aytaç finishing with 29:54.12.
U23 MIX
Last but not least the Mixed category saw Japan 2 (Akari Iimuro, Ko Haba, Kai Matsuo, Haruna Hirayama) take gold in a close race with 31:30.20, finishing just seconds ahead of Czech Republic1 (Anna Cundrlová, Tomáš Raděj, Vitězslav Ručka, Tereza Blandová) with 31:39.23. The winners' teammates close the podium: bronze mix goes to Japan 1 (Suzuki Sona, Kaori Takigasaki, Tatsunori Oki, Kaito Sasaki) with a time of 31:48.82.
First race day is over and the teams earned the first counting points. Eyes on the gates now, and on other athletes as well: tomorrow is RX day!
@worldrafting
