Another beautiful day and another day of racing at the Penrith
Whitewater stadium. Day three of the Junior & U23 World Championships
featured the semifinals/finals and team races for the U23 K1-men, K1-women, and
C2-men categories, but the real story of the day for Team USA was Michal Smolen
(Gastonia, NC) winning gold.
Fast, clean, and victorious; those are the best words to describe
Michal Smolen's winning run in the K1-men's final. Facing fierce competition
from a class stacked with former U23 World Champions as well as World Cup and
World Championship medalists, Smolen knew he had to be at his best entering the
day's races. After qualifying 4th in semifinals, Smolen blazed down the course
and to the top of the leader board with a time of 93.10 seconds, 1.29 seconds
faster than the next fastest athlete, Italian Geovanni De Gennaro. Only Jiri
Prskavec of the Czech Republic, had a time faster, but a two-second penalty at
the top of the course left him 1.57 seconds behind Smolen and in third place.
None of the other three athletes to start after Smolen were able to best his
time, thus securing him the title. In the words of comedian Mel Brooks,
"It's good to be the king."
Usually paddling C1, Zach "Bug" Lokken (Durango, CO) and
Tyler Hinton (Boulder, CO) joined forces to compete in the U23 C2-men's class.
In the semifinals, Hinton/Lokken finished 10th, just making the final. Then in
the final, the two were able to improve their position, finishing 7th
overall.
In his return to international racing, Simon Ranagan (Bethesda,
MD) finished 24th in the K1-mens semifinals.
Next up are the semifinals/finals and team races for the junior
K1-men, K1-women, and C2-men categories.
For live results and video
stream, please visit the links listed below:
Live results:
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