John Gregory - @gregiej | Sportscene -  The flood waters in central Europe have subsided sufficiently for the organisers of the European Canoe Slalom Championships to run a modified race schedule this weekend at Krakow, Poland. The race organisers are running a single heat (semi) run format into a final run.

In C1M, Olympic silver medallist Sideris Tasiadis from Germany won the heat with a comfortable 92.03 including a 2 second penalty. In the C1M final, Sideris was only able to hang on to second despite a faster time than his heat to finish +1.42 behind Germany’s Jan Benzien. Matej Benus from Slovakia was third.

In the K1M Czech Vavrinec Hradilek won the heat with 82.96 seconds clear. The first 6 K1M were split by less than 2 seconds and in fact Daniele Molmenti secured the fastest run time with 82.79 plus a 2 second penalty. Jiri Prskavec from Czech Republic was the fastest athlete on the course throughout the whole day with a startling quick and smooth 81.17 clear. Michael Kurt was only +0.63 seconds behind with 81.80 to take a silver K1M medal for Switzerland ahead of Sebastian Schubert from Germany with 83.62. In the Men’s K1 final the top 11 boats all went clear and the remaining 4 competitors including heat winner Vavrinec Hradilek picked up 50 second penalties. It was a disappointing day in the office for the reigning ICF World Champion Peter Kauzer, who was only able to secure 9th in the final.

In the European heats, Spain's Nuria Vilarrubla led the C1W with 121.90 including a 2 second penalty. In the final Caroline Loir (FRA) and Julia Schmid (AUT) were able to go ahead by a big 8 second margin. Caroline Loir secured her second gold medal at European Championships having won at Seu d’Urgell in 2011.

Top nation from Saturday’s races was clearly Germany with 3 medals already; (1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze). Notably the Czech Republic won gold in K1M and K1M Team event.

Great Britain did not score any medals for today’s events (C1M, K1M, C1WC and teams) and so it will be down to the ladies and C2 to pull back. There were some notable GB performances with 17 year old Kimberley Woods coming 6th in the C1W and celebrating her personal best. Also Joe Clarke at his first Senior European’s coming 13th in the final.  

These European Canoe Slalom Championships give us the first glimpse of which athletes are on form in 2013. It is the first of seven European races this year, which include the European Champs, World Cup and World Championships. These athletes will be among those to watch at the Cardiff International Whitewater Centre in 2 weeks.

Click on to the canoe slalom live results and follow these exiting European Canoe Slalom Championships. Tomorrow’s races including K1W and C2 individuals and teams.

You can download all results in one pdf at the top of this page in the results bar.

Photo Matej Benus: Vodny Slalom