Gates on Struma river inaugurated the WRF race season on 26th March: in Bulgaria 2 manches of SLALOM on Saturday morning awarded the first 100 points to Italy 1 (men category) who got the gold, with 2:15.62. Second slalom place to Italy 2, 90 points with 2:29.98. The new young team from Croatia got a bronze in their first international competition with 3:19.10: Jan Katic, Mislav Obrovac, David Zivcic, Tin Vukosic, Mihovil Cindic and Luka Rakocija, trained by Mr Antonjo Puskaric in Slunj, Croatia.
Pietro Fratton, Fabio Martini, Zeno Martini and Lorenzo Mastella
Men Italy 1 - Slalom gold
The women category saw Italy 1 leading the upstream gates that guaranteed them the slalom gold with a time of 3:02.39: Martina Bonomi, Giulia Liuzzo, Marianna Tedeschi and Miriam Waldboth, trained by the Italian coach Mr Paolo Benciolini.
Second place for Italy 2 with 4:31.08 and 90 points scored by Sara Amonini, Francesca Fontanive, Carlotta Scalvino and Valentina Volo. Bronze to Bulgaria with 4:43.22.
Martina Bonomi, Giulia Liuzzo, Marianna Tedeschi and Miriam Waldboth
Women Italy 1 - Slalom gold
RX qualifications followed with a fast lap on the slalom course section: the men’s slalom winners who had the fastest time in the first stage (00:53.50) ended the game with a silver in the RX, leaving the final gold and 120 points to their teammates named Italy 2: Emanuele Cerchi, Riccardo Colombo, Luca Liuzzo and Dario Morandi.
Winner of the final B was the ParaRafting team from Italy with Carlo Benciolini, Marco Montagna, Riccardo Novella and Nicola Speri. They won the knock-out paddling with Croatia.
Riccardo Colombo, Luca Liuzzo, Dario Morandi and Emanuele Cerchi
Men Italy 2 - RX gold
Italy 1 women won also the RX against Italy 2 in the final, leaving the third step of the podium to the local team from Bulgaria: Zoya Karadachka, Martina Naydenova, Simona Palazova and Margarita Paunovska.
MIX teams, who compete in the RX only, saw Italy 1 winning the gold, Italy 2 with the silver and Bulgaria on the third place.
Carlo Benciolini, Marco Montagna, Riccardo Novella and Nicola Speri
ParaRafting team from Italy
On Sunday 27th the DOWNRIVER on Struma river awarded the last points that confirmed some rankings and overturned others.
In the men category 3 seconds of advantage were decisive for the overall gold of Italy 1, who won the downriver stopping the chronometer on 16:53.37, ahead of Italy 2 (overall silver) who led the downriver until the last minutes where the 2 teams changed the ranking immediately before the last rapid.
At 17:51.42 Bulgaria crossed the finish line with the third best time, 5 seconds ahead of Croatia that ended up fourth in the final ranking scoring 224 points in total.
Sara Amonini, Francesca Fondtanive, Carlotta Scalvino and Valentina Volo
Women Italy 2 - Downriver gold
In the women category 80 points and the gold in the last discipline assured the overall silver to Italy 2, who finished the downriver in 17:47.64. 19:34.25 for Bulgaria on the third position (downriver and overall).
Second place in the downriver with 28:34.25 confirmed the overall gold to Italy 1.
2022 season is officially on: eyes on the next event, expecially on the upcoming World Champs at the end of July.
A warm thank you to the local organisation and the Bulgaria Rafting Federation, see you in the river!
Local team of guides working on Struma joined the event
