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The venue of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games hosted an exciting opening day of the 2025 ECA Canoe Slalom European Championships, with victories by Czechia, Germany, and Great Britain. In the women’s events, the Czech paddlers dominated, taking the top podium position in both kayak and canoe. In the kayak event, the Czech trio Gabriela Satkova, Lucie Nesnidalova, and Antonie Galuskova had a 1.64-second advantage over the Spanish team, composed of Maialen Chourraut, Leire Goni, and Laia Sorribes. The British team of Kimberley Woods, Lois Leaver, and Nikita Setchell took third place.

 

Gabriela Satkova won her second European team champion title of the day in the women’s canoe event, where she paddled alongside her sister Martina Satkova and Adriana Morenova. The young Czech team completed the course flawlessly, finishing 2.28 seconds ahead of the French team. Angele Hug, Laurene Roisin, and Doriane Delassus delighted the home crowd with their performance and silver medal. Italy's Elena Borghi, Marta Bertoncelli, and Elena Micozzi came third, incurring a touch on the course and two penalty seconds as a result.

 

The men's kayak team event had the most entries, with the German team of Hannes Aigner, Noah Hegge, and Stefan Hengst delivering the best performance. In the closest race of the day, they beat the French team by just 0.84 seconds. The French paddlers included Olympic medallist Titouan Castryck, along with Benjamin Renia and Anatole Delassus. The Spanish team of Pau Echaniz, Miquel Trave, and David Llorente secured third place.

 

The final event of the day was the men’s canoe team competition, won by the British trio Adam Burgess, Ryan Westley, and Luc Royle. They were one and a half seconds faster than Slovenians, the defending European team champions from last year’s home championships in Ljubljana – Tacen. Benjamin Savsek, Luka Bozic, and Ziga Lin Hocevar had a touch and received two penalty seconds, which cost them the victory. Third place went to the Slovak team with Michal Martikan, Matej Benus, and Marko Mirgorodsky, who finished three and a half seconds behind the winners.

The championships continues on Friday with individual heats. This year, each paddler will compete in a single heats run, aiming for a top-30 finish to secure a spot in Saturday’s semifinals.