Francisco Cubelos will be the Spanish K1 1.000 at the preolympic in Poznan. Craviotto and Saies, to fight for the K1 200

The Spanish Verducido Dam has seen this last weekend the young star Francisco "Paco" Cubelos earning the K1 1.000 place for the Spanish National Team trying to get the olympic berths in play at Poznan in May.

Cubelos, Peña and Cosgaya finishing in 7 tenths of a second

In a cold, rainy and windy weekend, many races were on the water along these two days, where the Spanish 1.000 metres Cup was held. But one of them was truly expected, as the K1 final was also the National Team Trial for the 1.000. If Francisco Cubelos or Íñigo Peña happened to win, they would get directly the place to fight in Poznan Preolympic Trial and avoiding further trials with a third paddler. And it happened, as the got first and second places, in a close finish where Diego Cosgaya also appeared to finally earn the bronze medal. Only 4 tenths separated Cubelos and Peña (picture above), while Cosgaya arrived 3 tenths later. Cubelos' victory was a truly morale booster, as he had to squeeze himself to the limit to beat Peña and Cosgaya, resulting in going down the barrier of the 3'30", stopping the clocking in 3'29"750.



Later on, David Cal, the four times olympic medalist, raced for the first time this year in his preferred distance, giving no options to his rivals and finishing in 3'57", two sevonds over Antonio Campos and three over Diego Romero, repeating the podium of the 5.000 metres in seville three weeks ago.

In the ladies race, Beatriz Manchón claimed victory, followed by her national team partner Jana Smidakova, while Laura Pedruelo closed the podium.

Other winners were Marcus Cooper (K1 Men U18), Brais Casas (C1 Men U18), Begoña Lazkano (K1 Women U18), Noelia Suárez (C1 Women Senior) and María Denche (C1 Women U18).

Afterwards came the team boat races, where the Cubelos family still had a lot to say: Francisco and his brother Héctor claimed gold in K2, while on Sunday they took bronze in K4 with their third brother Rodrigo and Isaac Toro, representing their club Talavera Talak.Silver went to Kayak Tudense and Piraguamadrid took victory with Olympic champion Saúl Craviotto being part of the the crew.

In the K2 final, silver went to Víctor J. Rodríguez and Diego Piña, while Rodrigo Germade and Craviotto's olympic gold partner Carlos Pérez Rial were third after the disqualyfication of the Marathon World champions Walter Bouzán and Álvaro F. Fiuza, whose boat didn't arrive to the compulsory 18 kg..There was an official complaint by their club, but it was not finally admitted.

At this link you may check the full results of the Spanish Cup.

We also want to notice that paracanoeists were competing too, as the Spanish Federation starts to give them more visibility in order to prepare for the Rio 2016 paralympics, were the paracanoe will be included in the the official program of the Games. The races were over 200 metres and the winner was the young Jonás García, with a great 48"180.

Craviotto and Saies will fight head to head the K1 200 place for the European Preolympic

On saturday morning it was also held the second trial to look for the Spanish representative at the K1 200 to try and get an Olympic berth at Poznan. Saúl Craviotto, has it happened at the first trial, won the two legs over Ekaitz Saies, Pablo Andrés, Carlos Pérez Rial and Carlos Garrote. Therefore, Craviotto closed the door to all the other aspirants to fight against Saies, the defending paddler, at the third and final trial, next May 8th. The winner will be the best of three.