Canoeists clean up

Whitewater: Mario Leitner takes silver

Mario Leitner

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Mario Leitner from Carinthia won the silver medal at the European Whitewater Championships for slalom canoeists in Ljubljana on Saturday. The 27-year-old qualified for the twelve-man final in the preliminary eight, where he was only beaten by Italy's Giovanni de Gennaro by 2.96 seconds after a flawless run. Just under a second behind Leitner, Switzerland's Gelindo Chiarello took bronze. All other ÖKV athletes were eliminated in the preliminary heat. There was also silver in the team competition.

From there it was straight into the final, as the schedule had been disrupted by heavy rain and flooding. Felix Oschmautz in 16th and Moritz Kremslehner in 37th in the men's event and Corinna Kuhnle in 13th by just one place or 1.01 seconds in the women's event, as well as Viktoria Wolffhardt in 28th, failed to clear this one hurdle. With this success in his last chance against Oschmautz in the race for the one Austrian Olympic place, Leitner put himself back in the running. He had also won the quota place in September.

Kuhnle improved
For the Austrian women, the World Cup in Augsburg is still the deciding criterion for the allocation of the Olympic quota place, but Kuhnle has further improved her starting position compared to Wolffhardt, who was limited in her preparations for the European Championships. Wolffhardt is still competing in the canoe single on Sunday.

Silver in the team event too 
Mario Leitner, Felix Oschmautz and Moritz Kremslehner also secured the silver medal in the team event in the afternoon. Leitner, who competed at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, had already won silver at the European Championships in Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia, in the new Olympic kayak cross event in 2022. The Austrians did not make a name for themselves in this discipline in Ljubljana.