Canoe Slalom European Championships 2026, day 1: France win both men's team titles in Ivrea
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- 2026-09-24T22:53:41+00:00
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- PaddleStats
Full competition results: ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships - Ivrea
France won both men's team titles on the opening day of the 2026 Canoe Slalom European Championships in Ivrea, while Slovakia took gold in the women's kayak team event and hosts Italy won the women's canoe team title. On Thursday 24 September, the single-run K1 and C1 heats featured 187 starts by athletes from 25 delegations. Eliška Mintalová and Xabier Ferrazzi were fastest in K1, while Elio Maiutto and Alsu Minazova led the C1 heats.
Poland's best result of the day was fourth place in the women's kayak team event. Klaudia Zwolińska, the world champion in K1 and C1, reached both individual semifinals.
Overview: four medals for France on day one
Four team finals were decided on Thursday afternoon at the Stadio della Canoa Ivrea. France took four of the twelve medals on offer, while Italy claimed three.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | France | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 2 | Italy | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Slovakia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Czechia | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 | Great Britain | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
In a slalom team event, three athletes from the same nation tackle the course together, with all individual penalties added to the team’s time. Touching a gate pole incurs a two-second penalty; missing a gate adds 50 seconds. On Thursday, penalties often proved more decisive than raw speed.
Czechia's women were hit particularly hard. They won both team titles at the 2025 European Championships in Vaires-sur-Marne and again at the 2025 World Championships in Sydney. In Ivrea they finished tenth in kayak and ninth in canoe, with 50 and 52 seconds in penalties respectively.
In the heats, each athlete had one run and the top 30 in each class advanced to Friday's semifinals. The top twelve in each semifinal advance to the final. All four heat winners completed clean runs.
Team finals: France win both men's titles
Men's kayak team (K1x3). Titouan Castryck, Anatole Delassus and Martin Cornu won in 86.30 without a penalty. Castryck is the K1 world champion from Sydney. Czechia (Jakub Krejčí, Jiří Prskavec, Matyáš Novák) finished 0.58 behind, and Great Britain (Joseph Clarke, Sam Leaver, Ben Haylett) took bronze 0.68 behind. Italy set the fastest raw time of the final, 86.07, but four seconds of penalties dropped Giovanni De Gennaro, Xabier Ferrazzi and Tommaso Panico to fifth. Germany, the 2025 European champions, finished eleventh with six seconds of penalties.
Men's canoe team (C1x3). Nicolas Gestin, Yohann Senechault and Jules Bernardet won in 90.64 without a penalty. Gestin is the reigning C1 world champion from Sydney. Czechia (Václav Chaloupka, Lukáš Kratochvíl, Lukáš Rohan) took silver in 91.29. Italy again had the fastest raw time, 90.09, but a single gate touch left them with bronze in 92.09. Slovenia, silver medallists in Vaires-sur-Marne a year ago, had a particularly difficult run: Benjamin Savšek, Luka Božič and Žiga Lin Hočevar recorded 104.69 before penalties, but an additional 200 seconds left them eleventh. Great Britain, the 2025 champions, finished seventh.
France repeated their double victory in the men's team events at the 2025 World Championships. In Vaires-sur-Marne they finished second in kayak and fourth in canoe.
Women's kayak team (K1x3). Eliška Mintalová, Zuzana Panková and Soňa Stanovská won in 97.06, including a two-second penalty for one gate touch. Italy (Stefanie Horn, Agata Spagnol, Lucia Pistoni) finished 1.28 behind and France (Emma Vuitton, Camille Prigent, Marjorie Delassus) 1.73 behind. France had the fastest raw time, 94.79, but four seconds of penalties dropped them to third. Poland finished fourth, and Great Britain and Czechia both received 50-second penalties and finished ninth and tenth respectively.
Women's canoe team (C1x3). Italy's Marta Bertoncelli, Elena Borghi and Elena Micozzi won in 102.54 with a clean run to secure the hosts’ first title of the championships. France (Angèle Hug, Doriane Delassus, Marjorie Delassus) had the fastest raw time, 100.88, but a two-second penalty for a gate touch left them 0.34 behind. Great Britain (Kimberley Woods, Mallory Franklin, Ellis Miller) took bronze in 109.33. Switzerland did not start.
Heats: Mintalová and Ferrazzi fastest
Mintalová led the women's K1 heats with a clean run of 84.37, finishing 1.78 seconds ahead of Germany's Emily Apel. Minazova was third in 86.67. Kimberley Woods, the K1 silver medallist at the 2025 World Championships, touched two gates, finished 34th in 100.73 and did not qualify.
Ferrazzi topped the men's K1 heats in 75.84, the only time under 77 seconds. David Llorente of Spain was second, 1.45 behind, and Jakub Krejčí of Czechia third. Prskavec, the 2025 European champion, qualified in 20th. Miquel Travé, the 2025 European champion in C1, missed the kayak semifinal by one place: he was 31st, 0.50 behind Martin Dougoud of Switzerland in 30th.
Ferrazzi is racing at home. At the 2025 European Championships he finished fourth in the K1 final, 1.45 behind the bronze medallist Martin Srabotnik, and at the World Championships in Sydney he was eliminated after finishing 14th in the semifinal. Minazova, the 2025 world silver medallist in C1, did not reach the final in either class in Vaires-sur-Marne, where she was 24th in both semifinals. In Ivrea, she led the C1 heats and finished third in K1.
In the men's C1, Maiutto won in 81.81, 0.18 ahead of Kratochvíl. Bernardet and Gestin were third and fourth, 0.02 apart. Minazova, who competes as an Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN), led the women's C1 heats in 91.42 ahead of Mallory Franklin (0.43 behind) and Panková (0.65 behind). Marjorie Delassus had the fastest raw time, 90.08, but dropped to fourth after touching a gate.
| Heats | Winner | Nation | Time (s) | Penalties (s) | Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Women's K1 | Eliška Mintalová | SVK | 84.37 | 0 | 30 of 43 |
| Men's K1 | Xabier Ferrazzi | ITA | 75.84 | 0 | 30 of 58 |
| Women's C1 | Alsu Minazova | AIN | 91.42 | 0 | 30 of 39 |
| Men's C1 | Elio Maiutto | ITA | 81.81 | 0 | 30 of 47 |
Zwolińska in both semifinals as Poland secure seven semifinal places
Zwolińska arrived in Ivrea as the world champion in K1 and C1. In Sydney she won C1 on 2 October 2025 in 108.49, 4.39 ahead of Minazova, and K1 a day later in 100.32 without a penalty, 1.77 ahead of Woods. At the European Championships in Vaires-sur-Marne on 17 May 2025 she had finished ninth in both finals.
On Thursday she raced three times. In the K1 heats, she recorded a raw time of 85.60, touched one gate and finished sixth in 87.60, 3.23 behind Mintalová. In the C1 heats, she finished eighth in 94.32, with a raw time of 92.32. In the afternoon she raced in the kayak team with Dominika Brzeska and Hanna Danek. Poland finished fourth in 101.54, 2.75 behind the bronze medallists from France. A year earlier in Vaires-sur-Marne the same three finished fifth in 106.16. At the Sydney World Championships they were eleventh.
Poland’s eleven individual starts produced seven semifinal places:
- Men's K1: Michał Pasiut sixth in 77.81 without a penalty, Dariusz Popiela 13th in 79.49, Mateusz Połaczyk 26th in 81.61. All three qualified.
- Women's K1: Zwolińska qualified. Brzeska was 31st in 99.45, 0.22 behind Laia Sorribes of Spain in the last qualifying place. Danek was 35th.
- Women's C1: Zwolińska and Danek qualified. Danek secured the 30th and final qualifying place in 105.34.
- Men's C1: Michał Wiercioch qualified in 27th. Szymon Nowobilski was 31st, 0.09 seconds behind the final qualifier. Kacper Sztuba had a raw time of 83.73, which would have placed him sixth, but a 50-second penalty dropped him to 45th.
Poland's men's teams had mixed results compared with Vaires-sur-Marne. Połaczyk, Pasiut and Popiela were seventh in kayak (91.51, including four seconds of penalties), one place lower than in Vaires-sur-Marne, where Jakub Brzeziński raced instead of Pasiut. Their raw time of 87.51 was the fifth fastest of the final. Sztuba, Nowobilski and Wiercioch finished eighth in canoe with a clean run of 98.14, one place higher than in 2025.
What's next: individual finals on Friday
Friday 25 September brings the individual semifinals and finals. All times are local in Ivrea, the same as in Poland:
| Event | Semifinal | Final |
|---|---|---|
| Women's K1 | 09:05 | 11:36 |
| Men's K1 | 10:14 | 12:14 |
| Women's C1 | 14:35 | 17:06 |
| Men's C1 | 15:44 | 17:44 |
Kayak cross follows on Saturday 26 September. The time trials start at 14:20 for women and 15:05 for men. Results from every round are published on the event page for the European Championships in Ivrea.
Six Polish athletes will make seven semifinal starts on Friday: Zwolińska in K1 and C1, Pasiut, Popiela and Połaczyk in men's K1, Danek in women's C1 and Wiercioch in men's C1. If Zwolińska reaches both finals, she will race four times on Friday. The K1 semifinal begins at 09:05, the K1 final at 11:36, the C1 semifinal at 14:35 and the C1 final at 17:06.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won the team events at the 2026 Canoe Slalom European Championships?
France won the men's K1x3 (Castryck, Delassus, Cornu, 86.30) and the men's C1x3 (Gestin, Senechault, Bernardet, 90.64). Slovakia won the women's K1x3 (Mintalová, Panková, Stanovská, 97.06) and Italy the women's C1x3 (Bertoncelli, Borghi, Micozzi, 102.54).
Who set the fastest times in the heats in Ivrea?
Xabier Ferrazzi in men's K1 (75.84), Eliška Mintalová in women's K1 (84.37), Elio Maiutto in men's C1 (81.81) and Alsu Minazova (AIN) in women's C1 (91.42). All four completed clean runs.
How many athletes qualify for the semifinals and finals?
The top 30 in each event advanced from the heats to Friday's semifinals. The top twelve in each semifinal qualify for the final later that day.
Is France the strongest nation in the men's team events?
France won both men's team titles at the 2025 World Championships and both again in Ivrea, but the margins are small. In kayak they beat Czechia by 0.58. Italy had the fastest raw time in both finals and lost on penalties; in canoe, without their one touch, they would have won. In Vaires-sur-Marne a year ago France won neither title.
Are Czechia's women no longer the best team?
One day is not enough to say that. Czechia won both women's team titles at the 2025 European and World Championships. In Ivrea they finished tenth in kayak and ninth in canoe, after receiving a 50-second penalty for a missed gate in each event. Their raw times were also slower than those of the medallists: in kayak, they recorded 103.91, 8.85 seconds slower than Slovakia.
Can Klaudia Zwolińska win a European title?
She has a chance in both events. She qualified sixth in K1 and eighth in C1, receiving a two-second penalty for a gate touch in each run. In K1 she was 3.23 behind Mintalová. Last year she followed two ninth places in the European finals with two world titles in October, so her heat results do not rule her out of contention.
Is fourth place in the women's kayak team event progress for Poland?
The team’s results suggest so. Zwolińska, Brzeska and Danek were fifth at the 2025 European Championships and eleventh at the World Championships. In Ivrea they were fourth, 2.75 seconds behind the bronze medallists and 4.48 behind Slovakia.
When are the individual finals in Ivrea?
On Friday 25 September: women's K1 at 11:36, men's K1 at 12:14, women's C1 at 17:06 and men's C1 at 17:44 local time.
Twelve individual medals will be awarded on Friday. Zwolińska can race for two of them if she reaches both finals. Results from every run are available on the 2026 Canoe Slalom European Championships page.