First race day of the Euro Cup in Villeneuve was opened by the RX selection on 7th afternoon: Dora Baltea river welcomed 128 athletes and 27 teams with its III grade rapids, that selected the matches of the knock-out phase that is taking place today. Later in the day, yesterday, the the first points were scored with the 6kms of Downriver, starting from the amazing Inferno canyon in the Leverogne section.
Men category - Italy
The fastest team to stop the clock and was Rafting Team Verona, who got the first 80 points winning the Senior Men category with 22’17.52; 30 more seconds for the silver CC Pescantina-AddaViva-RaftingAventure (22’50.87- 72 points). Third step of the podium and 64 points for AddaViva-M&N who finished with 23’25.63.
Women category - Iran
Italy leads also in the women category: 24’24.57 for the team AddaViva-RKCC-RaftingAventure who got the first place. Iran got the silver with 27’44.42, straight ahead of Turkey team with 28’33.78.
A challenging downriver for the 6 MIX teams that saw 4 teams from Italy getting the best times, followed by France and Morocco. First place for Rafting Team Verona with 22’47.90 only 10 seconds ahead of the teammates RaftingTeamVerona-M&N-DRD4 with 22’57.11. Bronze medal for the local team of guides IntiRafting-RaftingAventure with 23’17.45.
Mix category - France
ParaRafting category was taken by M&N-AddaViva_RaftinTeamVerona (22’38.35) followed by M&N-SesiaRafting-Pescantina-AddaViva (23’15.81).
A great time for the Winner of the Junior Men: RaftingAventure with young U19 local athletes stopped the clock at 22’58.13, sixth best time overall. Second place, with 23’44.48, for M&N.
A gap of only 20 seconds between the winner of the Junior women DRD4 24’56.52 and the second RaftingTeamVerona 25’14.17.
Last category is Junior mix with the golden AddaViva-DRD4-M&N 23’43.59 and M&N-DRD4 25’05.63.
ParaRafting category - Italy
Narrow passages and a tricky water level awarded these first points: everything will be decided today with the RX and with the 2 closing matches of Slalom on Saturday that will take place in the same section in Villeneuve.