Czech Canoe Sprint Nationals 2026: Results from Racice
- Published
- 2026-08-04T16:02:38+00:00
Full competition results: Czech Canoe Sprint National Championships 2026
Four days of canoe sprint racing on the Račice regatta course decided the 2026 Czech national championships, and the verdicts could hardly have been clearer: Josef Dostál defended his kilometre kingdom, Martin Fuksa took two canoe golds alongside his brother, and Anežka Paloudová left the Czech Canoe Sprint National Championships 2026 with four titles from four days. From 30 July to 2 August, nearly a thousand paddlers contested 102 events across every age group, from the youngest categories to masters — and the racing produced one result so rare that the timing system simply gave up trying to separate two boats.
Medal table of the 2026 Czech Canoe Sprint Nationals
| # | Club | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lokomotiva Nymburk | 13 | 10 | 12 | 35 |
| 2 | Klub vodních sportů Praha | 10 | 9 | 13 | 32 |
| 3 | Dukla Praha | 10 | 7 | 8 | 25 |
| 4 | TJ Černožice | 10 | 3 | 5 | 18 |
| 5 | Kanoistika Přerov | 9 | 8 | 3 | 20 |
| 6 | Univerzitní sportovní klub Praha | 8 | 11 | 7 | 26 |
| 7 | Lokomotiva Braník | 8 | 6 | 2 | 16 |
| 8 | Spartak Sedlec | 7 | 2 | 4 | 13 |
| 9 | Ostrožská Nová Ves | 4 | 4 | 8 | 16 |
| 10 | Prazdroj Plzeň | 4 | 5 | 6 | 15 |
Read the table twice, because it tells two different stories. Lokomotiva Nymburk topped the overall count with 35 medals and 13 golds, built overwhelmingly on youth and masters racing — a breadth-of-programme triumph for the club from Martin Fuksa's home town. Klub vodních sportů Praha stacked 32 medals across every age group, with Denisa Řáhová supplying the senior shine.
The senior championship, however, belonged to two Prague institutions. Dukla Praha converted 23 of its 25 medals in the senior classes, including 10 of the 22 senior golds on offer, while Univerzitní sportovní klub Praha answered with seven senior titles of its own — five of them carried by women's kayak crews. That duel, covered in depth in Dukla Prague's 10 senior golds, shaped almost every A final of the weekend.
Every senior champion crowned in Račice
Twenty-two senior gold medals went to sixteen different names, and the biggest ones delivered. Dostál, the Paris 2024 Olympic champion over the distance, won the men's K1 1000 m in 3:24.47, with 3.10 seconds back to Radek Šlouf — his former K2 partner from their Tokyo 2020 bronze — and New Zealand guest Quaid Thomson crossing third in 3:28.07. A day later Šlouf claimed his own crown, taking the K1 500 m in 1:42.35 ahead of Michal Kulich, who finished the week with four medals in four different boats.
Martin Fuksa answered in the canoe classes. The Olympic C1 1000 m champion won the C1 500 m in 1:50.18, with brother Petr Fuksa second in 1:53.20 — and twenty-four hours later the two shared a boat and a gold, winning the C2 500 m in 1:43.23. Petr added the C1 200 m title in 0:40.97 for a family haul of four golds and one silver. In the women's canoe, Řáhová swept both individual distances, taking the C1 500 m in 2:06.72 and the C1 200 m in 0:49.36 before adding C2 gold with Kamila Simova.
The full sweep of the weekend belonged to Paloudová. The Univerzitní sportovní klub Praha kayaker won the K1 500 m on Thursday, the K1 1000 m on Friday, then doubled up on Saturday with K2 and K4 gold — a run examined in detail in her four-golds story.
Records, dead heats and a changing of the guard
The strangest final of the championships came last. In Sunday's women's K1 200 m, Štěpánka Sobíšková and Kateřina Zárubová stopped the clock on an identical 0:42.56, and the title was shared — two gold medals, no silver, with Zuzana Hanusová taking bronze at 0.18 seconds. The pair know each other's stroke rate intimately: both raced in the Czech K4 500 m crew that took U23 world championship silver, and in Račice they finished a boat's breath apart in the K2 500 m final as well, second in 1:47.77.
The men's C1 1000 m produced the weekend's quiet changing of the guard. Twelve months earlier the title went to Martin Fuksa; this year, with Fuksa absent from the final, Robin Hirsch seized the kilometre in 3:57.23, 4.66 seconds clear of Marek Škrob. Hirsch left Račice with three medals — the C1 1000 m gold plus C2 and C4 silver — the fullest weekend of any male canoeist outside the Fuksa family.
Paracanoe crowned its champions too. Vojtěch Procházka took the KL3 200 m gold in 0:44.08, and Miroslav Šperk won the VL2 class in 1:01.20 — both titles decided in Friday's finals block, alongside the senior 500 m races.
The tightest crew race was the men's K4 500 m, where the Univerzitní sportovní klub Praha quartet of Jiri Humhal, Ondrej Prchlik, Jakub Remuta and Kulich held off the second boat by 0.36 seconds, 1:23.46 to 1:23.82. Remuta and Kulich had already won the K2 500 m together in 1:32.32; Remuta then chased Tomas Kapoun home in the K1 200 m, where Kapoun's 0:35.86 was the fastest winning time of the championships.
What's next for the Czech sprint team
The calendar gives the Račice champions no time to settle. The ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Championships in Poznań open on 26 August, and the national championships served as the last full-field domestic test before the Czech team crosses the border. Dostál arrives as the reigning Olympic K1 1000 m champion and a six-time world champion over K1 500 m; Fuksa won his fourth world title, in the C1 1000 m, in Milan in 2025. Both will race a world championships on Polish water for the first time since Poznań last hosted major international finals.
Before that, the Czech domestic season continues on 8 August with the Czech Canoe Marathon National Championships 2026 — a different discipline, but many of the same clubs chasing national silverware.
The Račice course itself has long history with the biggest occasions: it hosted the world championships in 2017, where both Dostál and Fuksa won world titles on home water. Nine years on, the two are still setting the domestic terms — and the bill for that stability will be presented by their rivals in Poznań.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won the most gold medals at the 2026 Czech canoe sprint national championships?
Anežka Paloudová of Univerzitní sportovní klub Praha won the most senior golds, taking four titles: the K1 500 m (1:51.88), the K1 1000 m (4:17.27), the K2 500 m with Zuzana Hanusová (1:46.91) and the K4 500 m (1:37.93).
Who won the men's K1 1000 m at the Czech nationals in Račice?
Josef Dostál won the men's K1 1000 m in 3:24.47, ahead of Radek Šlouf (3:27.57) and New Zealand guest Quaid Thomson (3:28.07). Dostál is the reigning Olympic champion in the event from Paris 2024.
Which club topped the medal table at the 2026 Czech nationals?
Lokomotiva Nymburk led the overall medal table with 13 golds and 35 medals across all age categories. In the senior classes, Dukla Praha was the strongest club with 10 of the 22 senior gold medals.
When and where were the 2026 Czech canoe sprint national championships held?
The championships took place from 30 July to 2 August 2026 on the Račice regatta course, the venue that hosted the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in 2017.
Was the women's K1 200 m final really a dead heat?
Yes. Štěpánka Sobíšková and Kateřina Zárubová both clocked 0:42.56 in the final, and the gold medal was shared. Two golds were awarded and no silver, with Zuzana Hanusová third in 0:42.74.
Is Robin Hirsch the new force in Czech men's C1?
The data points that way over the kilometre. Hirsch won the C1 1000 m in 3:57.23 by a 4.66-second margin in a final that did not include Martin Fuksa, who had won the title a year earlier, and added C2 500 m and C4 500 m silver. Fuksa, though, remains the reference over 500 m, where he beat Hirsch's club-mates by nearly three seconds.
Can Paloudová carry her Račice form to the world championships in Poznań?
Her four national titles came against domestic opposition, and her 2026 international season has been built around crew boats — including a second place in the K2 500 m B final at the Montreal World Cup. Poznań will show whether a home-region crowd sees her back in an individual A final; her K2 and K4 are the likelier vehicles.
Where can I find full results from the 2026 Czech nationals?
Complete results for every race, from heats to finals in all age categories, are available on the Czech Canoe Sprint National Championships 2026 event page.
Račice confirmed the hierarchy at the top of Czech sprint canoeing and cracked it open just below: Dostál and the Fuksa brothers delivered as expected, while Anežka Paloudová turned the women's kayak programme into a personal showcase. The next answers arrive quickly — on 26 August, at the world championships in Poznań.
Sources: official race results of the Czech Canoe Union (kanoe.cz), ICF calendar.