What a way to start the 2nd day of the World Cup in Poznan, it really was a great continuation from yesterday as many of the previous day’s contenders solidified their position by claiming positions on the podium. One cannot underestimate the effect the head winds had on the morning’s races and many of the times posted were slower than they would have been under normal conditions.

It was under such conditions that the Women’s K1 1000m event started. Natalya Sergeyeva (KAZ) opened Kazakhstan’s World Cup account by winning Gold. She was followed in the distance by local girl Edyta Dzieniszewska (POL) with Silver and Agnes Brun-Lie (NOR) with Bronze. It is worth mentioning that Jo Bridgen-Jones (AUS), who usually does well in this event, came in fourth. She later explained to the ICF that this World Cup in Poznan is really a bid to get her stride back after an off season spent recovering from surgery:

I want to take it a race at a time. I want to work towards the World Championships in Szeged where I hope to see a greater improvement in my race time.

In the Women’s K2 1000m, credit has to be handed over to the Belgians, and in fact the entire delegation as the team experienced a Bronze medal in this event. Ahead of the two ladies were the two Polish duos of Pawelczak and Krukowska who claimed Silver and the winners Naja and Wardowicz; a good start for the host nation.

It really looks like Team Belarus are the ones to beat in this World Cup in Poznan. In the very competitive Men’s C4 1000m race, Belarus managed to creep past a very competitive Uzbekistan team to win Gold, leaving the Uzbek’s out in the wind with Silver and the crew from Kazakhstan closely followed behind, with Bronze.

For a good 10 minutes before the race event started, it seemed that the venue was at a standstill and everybody had congregated at the starting point of the K1 1000m. “Aleh, Alehh, Aleee!” were the frantic calls by this young athlete’s legion of supporters. In a race of three, it was really all about Eirik Veraas Larsen (NOR), Anders Gustafson (SWE) and Aleh Yurenia (BLR). With Larsen maintaining his second position for the most of the race, it was a duel between Gustafsson and Yurenia and the youngster Yurenia sealed the Gold spot by pulling away in the last 200m of the race. Larsen claimed Silver and Gustafson Bronze. In an interview with the ICF, Gustafsson said “I am happy to be back in Poznan where I won the World Championship last year. It is a course I like very much and I am very happy to begin my season on the up with the Bronze.”

Vadim Menkov today started his “Gold Collection”, this high achiever completely dominated the Men’s C1 1000m race and picked up the Gold medal 4 seconds ahead of Silver medal winner Sebastien Brendel (GER) and Bronze medal winner Tomasc Kaczor (POL).

The Women’s K1 500m was won by German Nicole Reinhardt who dominated the race along with Alana Nicholls (AUS) who came in second. Sofia Paldanius (SWE) came in a not so distant third, but it was Olympic Champion Inna Osypenko-Radomska (UKR) that was the surprising fourth as she was always a contender during the race but could not break into the winning pack of the three up front. Another

disappointed finalist was Teresa Portela (POR) who felt she has had a slow start to the season and that the head winds did have an impact on her race. She said, “I have to train harder this year and do well in the next World Cups, especially in the World Championships, and qualify for London 2012!”

Men’s K2 1000m took to the waters, but neither one of the top canoeists from yesterday’s Semi-Finals made it to the podium. There was no Hybois and Jouve (FRA) or Ferguson and Fitzgerald (NZL), but rather it was the Serbian duo of Stanojevic and Pajic that managed to claim Bronze. Pannecoucke and Cauwenbergh (BEL) took Silver and the Portuguese, Pimenta and Ribeiro sealed the Gold spot with some style.

After the medal ceremony, one half of the Serbian Bronze winning duo Dusan Stanojevic said that they were disappointed with their race because they didn’t have a good start because of the head winds, however he optimistically concluded,

A medal is a medal and it is important to keep winning podium places and keep in good form.

In the Men’s C2 1000m, Bezugliy and Prokopenko (AZE) were the proud winners and celebrated on the podium with Goubel and Beugnet (FRA) and another Belarus duo Rabchanka and Vauchetski (BLR) who came in third.

Teresa Portela (POR) was much happier later in the day, as her K4 500m crew took second place in the Final, with the Belarus women claiming their first medal of the competition with third place and the overall winners being the very strong local team from Poland.

It was round about the time for the Portuguese team to be rewarded with a Gold medal in this World Cup as they were one of the most improved teams from last season and had produced some good results so far this weekend. Two Belarus kayaks came through after winning Silver and Bronze!

That brings a close to the medal competitions for Saturday; Belarus leads the table with 6 medals, host country Poland with 4 and Portugal with 3 medals. It has been a great morning of competition and the first medals of the World Cup series have been settled.