Germany and Czech Republic are the 2012 R6 European Champions!!

Germany 1 have taken gold in the overall ranking of the 2012 European Championship in the men’s R6, with Czech Republic 2 securing their overall gold medal in the women’s R6.

A huge congratulations to both team and enjoy the celebrations!!!!!

Full overall R6 result

The Downriver

The final day of the competition saw the R6 teams head off from 10 am this morning, with the men in pods of 4 and women in pod of 3, at 5 minute intervals. As many paddlers of the R6 were also racing R4, the start time of the R4 racing is not until 2pm allowing the athletes to replenish valuable energy levels for their second race of the day.

Photos Jan Homolka

Again the Czechs dominated on home territory taking the gold medals in both the categories. The Czech 1 men completed a time of 37:03.28 just 30 seconds faster than Germany 1 who finished the race in second position. The top 6 mens teams were all within a minute of the fastest time proving that every second counts and a tiny stall in slower moving water can make a huge difference in final positions when racing in pods.

In the Women’s category Czech 2 put down an amazing time of 38:57.33. This time would have put them in 13th position in the men’s category and less than a minute off 6th place! These ladies are definitely pushing up the level of women’s raft racing. Positions 2-5 were all at 40 minutes with just seconds placing them apart. Slovakia secured themselves second place followed by Czech 1 who were all in the first pod. Great Britain 1 lead the second pod finishing in 4th but only 8 seconds slower than 3rd place. Again this shows that even over the length of a down river race every second counts.

Downriver results- MEN WOMEN