“Split up and compete,” was the motto for many of the clubs on the second day of competition at Solkan, Slovenia. Most of the teams on the first day familiarised themselves with the course, the competition and each other, so the second day’s atmosphere was excellent.
R4 started with 17 teams – 16 men’s and 1 women’s team from “Mrzla Uoda”. So these were very strong teams from the first day, made even stronger for the competition on the second day by dividing up their 6 man teams and making two teams. Teams from Austria, Italy, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia all started to fight for the medals.
Slalom was the first discipline. The course was great and I could see various exhibitions in the boat, with the aim to speed up entering the gate. Hard and fast tracking across the river caused much pain to many of the competitors. There were no surprises in terms of which teams were expected to climb the podium. First place – RK “Gimpex Straza 1” and one place behind them were their friends from the club “Gimpex Straza 2”, with the honor of third going to RT “Kula1 ” of Croatia. This season, the guys from “Kula” are showing and justifying their great progress.
Sprint – in this discipline the teams did their best not only to win medals but also to ensure better ranking in the H2H. Again, “Gimpex Straza 1” won with the guys from “Kula 1” coming second and their compatriots “Delta Sport Split” third.
H2H began with a tight competition between the teams, with no teams automatically going to the next round meaning all teams needed to be on fire from the first qualifying round. In the “A” final “Gimpex 1” beat “Gimpex 3”, their dominance becoming familiar now in the competition. Gimpex’s overall dominance was stopped by team “Delta Sport Split” from Croatia when they beat “Gimpex 2” in the “B” final.
And when all were gathered together, the podium saw Slovenian and Croatian teams taking turns. “Gimpex 1” showed their total domination by winning the maximum number of points and their friends from team “Gimpex 2” took second with the team from Croatia “Delta Sport Split” coming third. The first five places all went to the teams from Croatia and Slovenia, and that’s what I initially explained about the strong teams splitting and becaming even stronger.
The Solkan course has proved to be a great venue for Euro Cup competitions. The organization was good. We even had two sunny days. We met up with old friends, met some new rafters, all this and much more left a positive impression on us all.
Wherever they decide to do the following Euro Cup, the Slovenians will do it very well. Thanks to all the organizers and to the fans for a great time at Solkan. Congratulations to the winners and participants.
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