It was a disappointing day for the Spanish supporters this morning on the final day of the La Seu d’Urgell World Cup, as Maialen Chourraut (ESP) who is currently leading the Women’s Kayak category  did not make today’s final after finishing in 13th place in the semi-final.

“At gate 8 I hit the rock with the back of my boat when I did the stroke to move to the left,” said Chourraut. “So when I hit the rock the boat was pushed back from the gate and I lost my trajectory, and then that was it because I lost the line.”

The ever positive Chourraut concluded,

This is Slalom. I will continue to train and look ahead to the Olympic Games.

The Women’s K1 final was won by Ursa Kragelj (SLO) who had a perfect run through the course. The Slovenian was earlier in the year in a tight battle for Olympic selection but lost out to Eva Tercelj who did not make the final today.

“It’s unbelievable! I had a good day today and the past weekend, and I was having fun training and racing here, plus it’s my first win at the World Cup this season,” said the excited Kragelj.

“All the sections were difficult,” continued the K1 gold medallist. “You had to be very focused and really quick and calm with the poles of the gates. I managed to do that and this is the result.”

The French team continued to churn out the medals this weekend with Emilie Fer winning the silver medal. The 19th ranked French woman expertly guided her boat through the difficult upstream gates and completed her run with none of the setbacks that faced many of the previous paddlers; however when Kragelj came through her time was best.

Violetta Oblinger-Peters (AUT) had a good weekend in La Seu d’Urgell and narrowly missed out on a bronze medal when Katerina Kudejova (CZE), the final paddler to make her run came through the course. The Czech was the fastest K1 woman on the water but incurred a 2 second penalty that placed her in third place and put Oblinger-Peters out in fourth.

“I had a good race, obviously I would have liked to have won a medal but I think my preparations are getting better ahead of the next few World Cups,” said Oblinger-Peters. “Now I will head to London to support my husband (Helmut Oblinger) while he prepares for the Olympic Games.”

France won the last medal of the day in the Men’s C2 competition, awarding them the accolade of best nation at the La Seu d’Urgell World Cup.  The duo of Pierre Labarelle and Nicolas Peschier won the race with Ladislav and Peter Skantar (SVK) once again proving that they can carry the Slovakian flag high even without the presence of the Hochschorner brothers.

The cousins were last to go down the course and finished with a silver medal. For most of the race the Spanish duo of Jesus Perez and Daniel Marzo remained in podium position with a medal in mind until the Skantars came through and pushed them out of a medal position and into 4th place. The German duo of Robert Behling and Thomas Becker were third.