Linlithgow's Kristina Armstrong was crowned double U23 European Champion today with victory in both the K1 500m and K2 500m, along with Zoe Clark, at the Canoe Sprint European Championships in Bratislava.
Despite being in her first year of the U23 age group, the world junior bronze medallist put down two textbook 500m races, taking the individual K1 gold before replicating the result in the K2 with Royal's Zoe Clark.
After a fast start in the K1 500m, Armstrong was in fifth place at the halfway point, remaining composed despite early breakaways in the outer lanes. Sticking to her race plan, she pulled back her competitors with every stroke in the second half and ultimately won by over half a boat length, 0.78 seconds ahead of Czech Republic’s Barbora Betlachnova who won the silver and Laura Ujfalvi (Hungary) who won the bronze.
A delighted Kristina said: “I took some real confidence from racing the heats and semi-finals earlier in the week.
“I had no expectations of myself this morning, I just wanted to execute the race plan that my coach (Anton Vasquez) and I had discussed beforehand and hopefully get a personal best.
“So I knew exactly what I wanted to do, while I was nervous at the start, once the start buckets dropped it was just go, go and attack it.
“Throughout the race I knew I was up there and I knew that my second 250m was my strong point, so I just had faith in that. In the last 150m I just put everything on the line and somehow managed to gain half a second over everyone.
“I knew conditions were going to be really fast so my main goal was to try and get a PB so to come away with the win and a five second PB is just wow.”
Just four hours later, Kristina was back in her second final of the day, this time with Royal's Zoe Clark in the K2 500m.
Once again they raced to perfection. Sitting in third place at the midway point, the pair were within the medal mix for the whole race. In the final 100 metres the duo overtook their competitors in the dying stages to secure the win by just 0.084 seconds in 1:41.917, ahead of the Czech Republic and Slovakian crews.
Kristina said: “Winning the K1 filled me with such confidence for the K2.
“I knew if we had a good race and executed it the way we wanted, we would be close to the medals. We were nervous beforehand but once we got on the water we just relaxed and focused.
“We knew we had a strong second 250m again so it was about keeping our composure. As we were racing I knew we were in the middle of the pack so we stayed calm then with 150m to go we just put our heads down and went for it.
“I didn't realise we'd won until Zoe burst into tears then I screamed. It was amazing because it was so close at the end.”
Zoe added: “I don’t know if it was the perfect race, but it's all a bit of a blur, I knew we started well, then with about 150m to go I took a cheeky look across the course and thought I think we're in front so I just put my head down and tried to strive for the line.
“We've done our race plan a lot over the last few months, we've drilled the boat so much and we were confident with it so it was almost automatic.
“Just before the race I was really nervous especially because Kristina had won the K1, I really wanted to finish the job. As soon as we got on the water, the boat started to feel good and I thought we've got this.
“I'm just so happy.”
Worcester's Amy Green concluded the regatta for the Brits in a dramatic U23 K1 200m A final.
Technical problems with the start bucket meant that, despite the race appearing to be won by Ukraine's Diana Rybak, the results didn't stand and the competitors lined up 45 minutes later for a rerun. This time Amy finished in eighth place in 42.626.
Xavier Hinves (Southampton) was the first Briton in action today, racing in the B final of the U23 Men's K1 500m. He finished in joint seventh place with Turkey's Emircan Ayakli in 1:43:801.
Annabel Hutchinson (Reading) was second in the B final of the K1 Junior Women 500m crossing the line in 1:58.861 to finish in 11th place overall.
She was back on the water with Mollie Ball (Devizes) in the Junior Women's K2 500m B final where the pair finished in seventh in 1:53.404.
In the Men's U23 B final Philip Miles (Leamington Spa) and Benji Cabrera (Fowey) finished in fifth place in 1:33.658.
The Men's K4 500m crew of Haydyn Cooke-Bayley (Nottingham), Samuel Cribbett (Royal Leamington Spa), Gabriel Popham-Coveley (Nottingham) and Tom Holland (Wey) were ninth in the B final in 1:26.152.
And finally, in the K1 Junior 200m B finals Dianora De Bilio (Royal) was third in 44.320 with Richmond's Nelson Kinzler in fifth place in the junior men’s in 39.291.