The crystal clear waters of the Soča river played host to the world’s top young rafters at the 2025 Junior & U23 World Rafting Champs. After 2 intense days of Downriver and RX in Slovenia, yesterday the Slalom gates awarded the last points, and consequently decided the the Overall results. The Youth World Champions were decided among 11 gates, especially in the last 2: green but tricky, that granted a great show flipping a few rafts due to the 360 turn that in many cases was required.
U23 WOMEN
Czech Republic 1 (Kristýna Znamenáčková, Sára Hrdličková, Rozárie Švehlová, Kateřina Rutarová) took home the gold medal with 282 points thanks to the silver medal in Slalom.
Italy 1 with 276 points (Giulia Liuzzo, Giada De Bon, Maria Martini, Nina Casci) won the slalom with only 1 touch in the second manche, that granted them a silver overall.
Japan 2 got the bronze in Slalom, while the 4th place of their teammates granted the the Overall third place: bronze to Japan 1 (Sayaka Kamitani, Yuna Sera, Kaede Yamaguchi, Saki Ota) with 247 points.
U23 MEN
Turkey 1 (Egehan Arslan, Baran Akın, Tolga Mert Yazıcıoğlu, Efe Furkan Küçük, Mustafa Kaan Aytaç), with a silver in Slalom, secured victory with 274.
Czech Republic 1 (Pavel Drastich, Adam Vyroubal, Jakub Vyroubal, Tomáš Raděj, Vitězslav Ručka) with the 100 golden points won in Slalom got a second overall silver with 268 points.
Croatia 1, downriver winners, with 234 brought home the bronze overall (Petar Habek, Janko Presečki, Damjan Hohnjec, Josip Slonjšak).
JUNIOR WOMEN
France 1 (Charlotte Levacon, Mathilde Hostyn, Kaéna Baylacq, Jeanne Lafitte), second in the slalom, is the final winner and Junior world champ overall with 290.
Italy 1 (Viola Gambella, Laura Labroni, Alejandra Gazzola, Alessandra Conti) coming out on top of Slalom, follows the overall ranking with 280.
Czech Republic 1 240 (Kamila Dlesková, Zuzana Zetová, Barbora Samšiňáková, Evelin Rampasová, Natálie Lencová) gets third, both in Slalom discipline and overall.
JUNIOR MEN
Italy 1 (Matteo Lancellotti, Luca Liuzzo, Giacomo Schettino, Duccio Boscia) had the best performance among all categories, and getting 3 golds scored the perfect 300 points, dominating in Downriver, Slalom and RX.
Czech Republic 1 (Tomáš Znamenáček, Jakub Hanuš, Vojtěch Slušný, Aneta Krejčíková, Ondřej Procházka), second in the slalom, earned the overall silver with 252.
Czech Republic 2 (David Šrámek, Dominik Hovorka, Jakub Ruffer, Vilém Zuna) closes the overall podium with 234.
U23 MIX
Japan 2 (Akari Iimuro, Ko Haba, Kai Matsuo, Haruna Hirayama), with the Slalom and Downriver golds claimed the world title with 270.
Czech Republic 1 with a constant performance and a silver in Slalom, gets the silver overall with 258 (Anna Cundrlová, Tomáš Raděj, Vitězslav Ručka, Tereza Blandová)
Japan 1 (Akari Iimuro, Ko Haba, Kai Matsuo, Haruna Hirayama) RX winners scored 254 points and brings home the Overall bronze.
WRF President Danilo Barmaz thanked and congratulated all the athletes at the Closing Ceremony, not only for the quality performance but also for the enthusiasm during the whole event.
Every team is now returning to its own river, and the worldwide movement is already keeping an eye on the next appointments: Turkish Next Generation Cup and the awaited Senior World Championship coming in November.
