Britain’s Junior and U23 canoe sprint teams reached two A Finals with all paddlers progressing to the next stages, on the opening day of the European Championships in Pitesti, Romania.
Defending U23 K1 500m champion Kristina Armstrong (Scottish Performance Squad) qualified straight through to the A Final, finishing in second place in her heat.
She was back in the K2 500 with Worcester’s Amy Green and the pair finished in fourth place to qualify for the semi-finals.
Will Short (Elmbridge) and Alex Worgan (Richmond) finished second in their heat of the Junior K2 1000m to progress straight to the A final.
In the heats of the K1 1000m Juniors Philippe Ehrnrooth (Devizes) and Annie Bates (Richmond) finished fourth in their respective heats to progress to semi-finals, along with Gabriel Popham-Covely (Nottingham) in the U23s.
Lucy Guest (Nottingham) was seventh and also progresses.
Gabriel was back in action in the K1 500m where he finished fourth again, qualifying for the semis. Royal’s Dianora De Bilio was third in the junior event to qualify along with Tom Hatton who finished fourth and also makes it through.
Tom was back on the water in the K4 500m along with Sam Dickson (Falcon), Olivier Mazur (Reading), and Freddie Heard (Exeter) with the junior team finishing in fourth for a spot in the semi-finals.
Mazur and Heard mirrored that result in the K2 500m to book their spot in the next round.
Benji Cabrera (Fowey) and Tom Holland (Wey) joined forces to finish in fourth in their respective K2 500m heat, before being joined by Dylan O’Connor (Richmond) and Xavier Hinves (Southampton) in the U23 K4 500m crew, who were eighth and now through to the SF.
Elmbridge’s Sophie Dunlop and Matilda Burton were seventh in the Junior K2 500m which was enough to see them through to the next round.
And finally, the U23 K4 500m squad of Amy Green, Elise Montagna (Royal), Grace Anderson (Norwich), and Jessie Urquhart (Nottingham) finished in fifth place to qualify to their respective semi-final.
The schedule and live results can be found here.
Or to watch the racing the livestreaming will be free of charge on the Canoe Europe YouTube Channel.