A new guard emerges

John Gregory | @gregiej | Sportscene - The Prague 2013 Worlds were a worthy celebration of 100 years of Czech canoeing. The front of Monday’s local Prague papers showed a jubilant Vavřinec Hradilek in the water.

We said goodbye to Czech C2 pair Jaroslav Volf & Ondřej Štěpánek while welcoming new World Champions in each class.

There were more than a few unexpected early exits by Kühnle, Martikán, Molmenti, Kauzer and Schubert, before Pavol & Peter Hochschorner then also missed the qualification for the final.

New U23 paddlers came to the fore; 19 year old Jessica Fox (AUS) senior C1W World Champion or 20 year old Jiri Prskavec (CZE) who took silver in K1M, 19 year old Mallory Franklin (GBR) silver in C1W, 22 year old Nouria Newman (FRA) silver in K1W or 21 year olds Jonas Kasper & Marek Sindler (CZE) who came 4th in C2. They look set to continue the strength of Czech C2 as Volf & Štěpánek bow out.

Prague winners of heats, semi-final and final summary

You can compare these to the each of the 2013 World Cup race series events by clicking here.

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There was an audible gasp as Michal Martikán finished outside the top 10 and failed to make the cut into the final. Only once had he failed to be on the podium and few can recall a time when Martikán hasn’t been in the final. The semi-final winner was deservedly Sideris Tasiadis who looked on sensational form and finished in 104.43 clear only 0.40 seconds ahead of reigning World champion Denis Gargaud Chanut from France. The C1M final was made up of 7 nations of which the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia each had two boats. There were no boats from outside Europe.

31 Year old David Florence from Great Britain was one of the earlier paddlers down in the final and maintained his advantage despite a 2 second penalty. His run time of 100.53 + 2 seconds in penalties was the fastest C1 and more than 2 seconds faster than anyone else. It was an agonising wait for Florence as seven of the World’s top C1 paddlers made their way down including reigning World Champion Denis Gargaud Chanut (FRA) and then last Olympic silver medalist and 2013 World Cup series champion Sideris Tasiadis (GER). Florence became Great Britain’s first ever C1M World Champion.

C1W
Overall heat winner was Kateřina Hošková (CZE) with a second run a mere 0.37 seconds quicker than Jessica Fox’s first run. Of the 11 nations who secured boats in the semi-final Great Britain, Germany and Australia all placed three boats in the semi-final. Australia advanced all three boats in to the final.

19 year old Jessica Fox from Australia maintained her excellent 2013 consistency and composure to win by a whopping 12.99 seconds on a not entirely perfect run with 6 seconds of penalties. The lead switched multiple times but as Fox made her way down the 1st and 2nd split gave a clear insight into who would likely take the title. Quite a year for the still young Fox, 2013 World Cup series champion, senior World Champion and U23 World Champion.

K1M
It was the perfect race for heat winner Vavřinec Hradilek with a sensationally quick first run of 84.69 seconds clear. 20 Nations placed boats in the semi-final with the Czech Republic, Germany, USA, Australia, Italy, Slovenia and France each with three boats in the semi-final. Team USA looked impressive with 19 year old Michal Smolen in 3rd, Fabien Lefevre in 7th and Richard Powell in 12th. Daniele Molmenti (ITA) pulled back from 37th after first runs and Etienne Daille (FRA) from 39th.

In the K1M semi-final that followed, we were dumb struck to see Molmenti, then Schubert and then Kauzer fail to make the cut for the final. This is significant because Daniele Molmenti (ITA) is the reigning Olympic and former Wold Champion, Peter Kauzer (SLO) is the double reigning World champion and Sebastian Schubert (GER) is the newly crowned 2013 World Cup champion who has shown such superb consistency all season. The overall semi-final winner was another German Hannes Aigner from Augsburg who delivered a confident 95.42 seconds clear and 0.71 seconds ahead of Mateusz Polaczyk from Poland. The K1M final was made up of 8 nations including Germany and Czech Republic with two boats and one boat each from North & South America. The event ended with local heat winner Vavřinec Hradilek (CZE) awarded a 50 second penalty on gate 16. After video review the 50 second penalty was removed and he finished 5th.

The final truly belonged to 26 year old Czech Vavřinec Hradilek who did not disappoint his home support with a phenomenal 94.52 seconds including a touch K1M winning run in Troja. The local Czech supporters were utterly deafening and the Czech commentary got faster and faster. Local 20 year old Jiři Prskavec (CZE) had previously just taken the lead with 6 paddlers remaining in the final with 95.90 seconds clear. While he surrendered his lead to his older and more experienced team-mate, both then had to wait for the remaining 4 paddlers to finish before there was an almighty cheer from both the stands and Czech team.

K1W
Overall heat winner was 26 year old Lizzie Neave (GBR) with a faultless 2nd run of 98.09 seconds to lead 1.92 ahead of Olympic champion Émilie Fer (FRA). Fer had set the pace in the 1st runs with her time of 100.01 seconds. The enormous shock was the exit of Austria’s 26 year-old Corinna Kühnle who came to Prague as reigning World Champion and one of the favourites. She posted a 98.66 second time but incurred a 50 second penalty on the downstream gate 21. She then put down a 100.95 quick second run but again was awarded a 50 second penalty for downstream gate 16. The semi-final comprised 15 nations including Great Britain, Australia, Slovakia, Germany, Australia and Germany who each secured all three boats in the semi-final.

In the semi-finals Štěpánka Hilgertová (CZE), Jessica Fox (AUS), Urša Kragelj (SLO) and heat winner Lizzie Neave (GBR) missed the cut for the final.

In the final Émilie Fer (FRA) put down a confident run of 111.74 + 4 seconds of penalties to win by 2.20 seconds over her French team-mate Nouria Newman in silver medal position. Jasmin Schornberg (GER) was 4.21 seconds behind taking the bronze. In the end the final was considerably slower than the semi-final and no paddler managed to finish this extraordinarily tough course with less than 4 seconds of penalties.

The final included three French ladies and it represented both 22 year old Nouria Newman and 26 year old Marie Zelia Lafont’s best ever individual results. Ros Lawrence also topped Australia’s result with a personal best 7th at senior Worlds.

C2
Overall heat winner was Jarolsav Volf & Ondřej Štěpánek with 102.37 seconds clear. They led a Czech team lock out occupying first, second and third in the first runs and holding onto first and second with Ladislav & Peter Skantar (SVK) stealing third place at the conclusion to second runs. The semi-final comprised 9 nations, all European, with Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Germany and Poland all qualifying three boats. Pavol & Peter Hochschorner uncharacteristically seemed to miss one key stroke which forced them to loop back for gate 10. It was evident that they immediately recognised it was all over. The final then comprised 7 nations of which three were Czech and two French.

David Florence started the C2 finals already as C1M World Champion and with his back-man Richard Hounslow put in a solid, controlled and crucially clear run in the final with 114.10 seconds. The noise levels rose to a crescendo with three Czech C2 crews coming down after them. It was an agonising wait for Florence & Hounslow. The silver medal went to Jaroslav Volf & Ondřej Štěpánek (CZE) 0.04 seconds behind the British with Ladislav & Peter Skantar who were also clear taking bronze for Slovakia.

David Florence was quoted on twitter; “I’ve waited 15 years to be World Champion and you’ve won 2 in 24hrs". David Florence appears to be the first paddler to be World Champions at the same time in two classes since Charles Dussuet from Switzerland did the same in 1953 in Meran.
It was a great end to a distinguished career for Jaroslav Volf & Ondřej Štěpánek. They leave with Olympic bronze from Athens, silver in Beijing, Senior World Champions in 2006, silver in 2003 and 2013 and 2012 European Champions.

Štěpánek summarized beautifully with “A dream end of carrier would be about 4 hundredths better, but it is great…. it went out as best as it could and having a medal from the World championship is in short great.” Volf added “It was a great race…. We are going this way together for 23 years. We said to each other that we will be satisfied and it doesn´t matter what will be our place. It is a nice goodbye.”

Worlds Medal tables

Medal table based on individual classes and teams

The Czech Republic team celebrated topping the table with the team results on the home World Championships with the British topping the table with two golds and a silver in the individual events.

Medal table based on individual classes

Prague included paddlers from 49 nations. While fewer countries participated than in 2001, Prague welcomed paddlers from new countries Chile, Democratic republic of Congo, Malaysia, Nepal and Singapore.

Race percentages

Vavřinec Hradilek’s K1M winning time was astonishingly quick and so all other classes were very challenged with attempting to go fast and clean. The course designed by 2000 Olympic Champion Thomas Schmidt from Germany was exceptionally tough and worthy of a World Championship standard test. In fact in the K1W final no paddler finished with less than 4 second of penalties and in both K1W and C2 the final was considerably slower than the semi-final runs.

You can compare these to the percentages from each of the 2013 World Cup race series events by clicking here.

2013 in review
 

* We are awaiting the ICF publishing the post Prague World’s ICF rankings.

The Germans have been exceptionally strong throughout the World Cup series although they were out manoeuvred by the Czechs in Troja. They have shown themselves the most dominant kayak nation.

The Czechs have great calibre coming up in C2 with Kaspar & Sindler and Karlovsky & Jane. It has been a great season for French pair Pierre Picco & Hugo Biso with a 7th in the World Cup series, 5th in Europeans and 7th in World Championships.

It has been a tremendously exciting World Championship. The event was characterised by tight, exciting racing in a well-managed event. Congratulations to the Českého svazu kanoistiky organisers for battling back to clear the damage left by the flooding and pull of a great World Championship event.

So what’s next? Relaxation and then winter training in preparation for Junior/U23 Worlds in Penrith Australia in April or Senior Worlds in Deep Creek, USA in September 2014.

Final words – here is to another 100 years of Czech canoeing.

Download results Prague 2013