Šperk fought for third place in the 200m, which would have guaranteed him progress to the A final and thus a certain start at the Paralympics. In the end, however, he finished fifth at the finish line, and he is fighting for participation in the season’s peak in Paris in Saturday’s final B, where the last two places will be at stake.
“I wanted to fight for third place, but it was still out of sight,” noted Šperk.
In 2004, he won silver at the Paralympics in Athens in the discus throw, and now he is the first pioneer of para-canoeing in our country. “It’s great training for our para-hockey players for the summer as well. As my coach says, if you can’t walk, paddle,” Šperk added.
Martin Fuksa went home
World champion Martin Fuksa will not compete in Szeged. “Unfortunately, Martin caught some kind of virus. He was still on the water yesterday, but his state of health gradually got worse rather than better,” said national team head coach Pavel Hottmar. In the morning, Martin Fuksa agreed with the coaches that he would not start and instead head to the Czech Republic to see a doctor. “It is more of a preventive decision so that he does not risk any major illness and complications in training,” added Hottmar.
It is not yet clear what effect this will have on Fuks’ confirmation of Olympic nominations in both crews. In the national nomination competitions, the Fuks brothers had a clear advantage in the doubles, in the individual competitions, Martin Fuksa has been dominant in the country for a long time. The next World Cup will take place in two weeks in Poznan. In mid-June, speed canoeing will return to Szeged for the European Championship.
In the morning program, kayaker Anežka Paloudová confirmed her excellent form, who qualified for the Olympic Games in Paris in the 500m on Thursday. At the non-Olympic kilometer, she won the heat with confidence and advanced directly to Saturday’s final. Another Czech, Barbora Sovová, was not far behind, finishing fourth in the semi-finals, while the top three advanced. The B final awaits her.
Minařík will go to the final, the double kayak failed
Canoeist Jiří Minařík advanced to the final of the 500m. The fourth man of last year’s WC clearly won his semi-final. “I eased up a bit in the last 100 because I saw that I was a lot ahead. When I saw that the Italian and other boats were catching up to me, I added a little more to fight it off. I could probably speed up,” he said.
On the contrary, the supposed Olympic double kayaker Jakub Špicar, Daniel Havel did not reach the final of the 500 meter race. In the semifinals, he finished fourth with a loss of 88 hundredths to the top three. “In the semi-finals, we probably didn’t manage to get as calm as we needed. The ride was a bit scattered, and as a result, we stiffened up faster. There wasn’t such a match in the boat as we are used to,” said Havel. The B final awaits them with Špicar, in which, just like in the semi-finals, they will face compatriots Michal Kulich and Jakub Remuta. Today they have overtaken them by two places.
Kayaker Jakub Zavřel, who was fourth in the semi-finals, missed the final of the 500 by 15 hundredths of a second. “Of course I’m upset because it was really close,” he lamented.
