Portuguese canoeist Messias Baptista was crowned this Friday European champion of the K1 200 metres, a test integrated into the European Games in Krakow 2023, succeeding compatriot Kevin Santos.
The 24-year-old Olympic canoeist completed the distance in 36.845 seconds, beating the entire competition, with Sweden’s Petter Menning in silver, 0.334 seconds, and Latvia’s Roberts Akmens in bronze, 0.344, taking Portugal’s first gold medal in Krakow. achieved. 2023.
The Olympic athlete won a silver medal at the 2021 World Championships in Copenhagen in Tokyo 2020, in mixed K2 200, with Francisca Laia, and placed eighth at the Olympic Games in K4 500 meters, now succeeding Kevin Santos, who is the current European champion was unable to defend the title due to time constraints with other competitions in which he is entered.
Bronze medal for Francisca Laia
Portuguese canoeist Francisca Laia also took the podium, winning the bronze medal in the K1 200 metres.
The 29-year-old Olympic canoeist completed the distance in 41.058 seconds to take bronze, behind the new European champion, the Danish Emma Jorgensen (40.106) and the Serbian runner-up Milica Novakovic (41.006).
The Rio 2016 Olympic athlete had won silver in the same distance at the 2017 Plovdiv Europeans, and silver in the mixed K2 200 metres, with Messias Baptista, at the 2021 World Championships in Copenhagen.
The Krakow 2023 European Games will run until July 2 in Krakow and Poland’s Malopolska region, with 30 sports on the schedule and 48 participating countries, including Portugal, which has a delegation of more than 200 athletes.
Source: DN
