There was a medal milestone as Great Britain toasted more success at the ICF Junior and U23 Wildwater Canoeing World Championships in Slovenia.
After a successful opening day for GB individuals and pairs over the 4km classic course in Solkan, day two was a collective effort, with eight team titles on the line.
Emma Christie, Kerry Christie and Freya Price took one of them by winning gold in the U23 Women’s K1 team final, before the Christie sisters teamed up with Elsie Landsborough to claim U23 Women’s C1 team silver.
And the junior Men’s K1 team of Will and Sam Stevely and Malachi Grant won Britain’s first MK1 team medal since 1993 with a superb bronze.
It left Britain fourth on the medal table at the end of the classic competition, with five medals.
Having missed out on an individual medal by less than two seconds on day one, Will put that to bed in style in the Junior Men’s K1 with his brother Sam and Malachi Grant.
Sitting fifth at the midway split, four seconds off the third-placed team, the trio stormed to a time of 16min 35.31secs, pipping the fourth-placed Italians by just nine-tenths of a second.
“I was the pace boat in the team and just had to make sure the pace was nice and consistent for everyone to follow,” said Will.
“After halfway we did increase it a bit to keep it moving nicely and it worked.
“It’s a great reward for all of the hard work we’ve put in over the last couple of years.”
Team Manager Jamie Christie said: “Will performed really well to get fourth in day one and he was slightly disappointed, but put that right today.
“They pulled really well as a team and worked together exceptionally well. It’s been a very, very good day.”
Kerry and Emma Christie bagged their second gold medals of the championships with Freya Pryce in the U23 Women’s K1 team event.
They had built up an eight-second lead by the midway point and gradually extended their advantage, taking the line in 17:26.37 – a full 13 seconds clear of the second-placed Czechs.
“It was really amazing to win and nice to do it with my teammates alongside,” said Freya, 18, who moved from slalom to wildwater around 18 months ago.
“We knew we had it in us, but didn’t know whether we could pull it off.
“It was really hard work, but I just sat on Kerry’s wash and tried to hang on.”
And GB capped their classic campaign with a third team medal of the day in the U23 Women’s C1.
Kerry and Emma teamed up with Elsie Landsborough and they produced a fine run to clock 21:06.44, good enough for silver behind the impressive Czech trio.
It also took Kerry’s championship tally to four medals after Wednesday’s individual K1 silver.
The British trio of Ciara Maloney, Elsie Landsborough and Karly Leeson had been first off on day two in the Junior Women’s K1.
They posted 19:45.26 to go third-quickest of the early starters before settling for eighth.
Sebastian Reeves teamed up with the Stevely brothers in the Junior Men’s C1 event, but they did not finish their run.
It was the first of three trips down the course on day two for Will who completed his day in the U23 Men’s K1 team event with Leon Tomlinson and Eddie Mackintosh.
They came close to the podium with a decent run of 16:07.41, leaving them fifth in the 12-strong field.
There was a sixth-place finish in the U23 Men’s C1 for Harry Sewell-Catchpole, Regan Toop and Sebastian Reeves who negotiated the course in 21:07.63.
And the U23 Men’s C2 team race brought the curtain down on the classic races.
The canoe doubles of Eddie Mackintosh/Toby Peyton-Jones, Harry Sewell-Catchpole/Lochlain Lovell and Callum
McDonald/Adam Knox crossed the line in 19:41.58 for sixth.
The attention of the British squad now switches to the sprint races with more medals up for grabs on Friday and Saturday.