Maialen Chourraut It’s eternal. At 41, the Spanish paddler won the gold medal this Friday in the K1 women’s kayak modality in the Canoe Slalom World Cup contested in La Seu. This is the first gold medal for the Gipuzkoan in a World Cup. Until now, his best result in this championship had been silver, a metal that he has obtained twice (Seo de Urgel 2009 and London 2023). But after many years of struggle and preparation, the Basque has finally been able to put the finishing touches to a dream career.
Maialen, 41 and a triple Olympic medallist, was the fastest on a very technical circuit at the Parc Olímpic del Segre. Chourraut was already confident in the semi-finals among the top ten. The Atlético San Sebastián (ATSS) player, silver at Tokyo 2020, gold at Rio 2016 and bronze at London 2012, finished second in the semi-finals and in the fight for the medals, she signed a great run, with a time of 100.30 seconds to win gold.
“I’m going home winning this last World Cup and happy because the Olympic Games were a great success for me. I tell you that I am not yet recovered. At the last moment, I decided that I had to face this competition, I had to get rid of this thorn and I finished well,” said Maialen Chourraut after making history following the bad experience she had at the Paris Olympic Games last summer.
Miquel Travé imitates Maialen and is golden
The Spanish Miquel Travé took full advantage of playing at homeon its canal of La Seu d’Urgell (Lleida), win the C1 event of the Canoe Slalom World Cup final and won gold. Travé, born 24 years ago in this city of Ilerd, who in his debut at the Games finished fifth in Paris 2024 due to contact with the strap of his helmet that prevented him from reaching the podium, once again demonstrated his competitiveness to take a great victory against his team.
The Catalan finished third in the first round on Friday. This Saturday in the semi-final, he achieved a magnificent time of 93.43 to take the lead in the standings, with an advantage of 2.15 over the Slovenian Ziga Lin Hocevar and 2.64 over the Slovakian Matej Benus, Olympic bronze. The champion and vice-champion of Paris 2024, the Frenchman Nicolas Gestin and the British Adam Burgess They were excluded from the fight.
In the final, another Briton, Ryan Westley, who entered with the tenth and last time, set the tone with a time of 94.16 that no one could beat until it was Miquel Travé’s turn. The Spanishas happened on Friday to the incombustible Maialen Chourraut to win in K1, There was soon a knock at door four.
He passed the first timed test with a deficit of 2.70, but Halfway through he came back to settle with 0.46 more. which he managed in the last part of the descent to win with a time of 93.51, with a gap of 0.65 on Westley.
The Slovaks Michal Martikan (95.89) and Benus (97.34) took third and fourth places.who is worth the second score in the general World Cup ranking with 257 points ahead of Hocevar (242) and Westley (223), while Travé climbs to eighth place in the final with 190.
