Saúl Craviotto and Alfonso Benavides show their London shape at Spanish Sprint Championships

Frenzy weekend of races last days at Trasona Dam (Asturias, Spain) with the Spanish Sprint Championships, with two of our Olympic paddlers doing their last test before giving everything at Eton Dorney in two weeks. Saúl Craviotto (K1 200) and Alfonso Benavides (C1 200) gave no chance to their opponents and claimed gold with terrific performances, showing that their olympic medal assault is in the right way.

Photo Finish had to decide the medals at the K4 200, amazing race

But not only the mediatic olympic paddlers were taking all the flashes. From our point of view, the main character of the event was junior female paddler Begoña Lazkano, who took six golds out of six races by winning K1 200, 500 and 1,000 and then doing the same with her teammate Amaia Benavente on the K2 over the three distances. These girls, under Ekaitz Saies coaching, are definitely looking forward for some exciting future.

National trials have decided Spanish teams for the Sprint European Championships

Last weekend, through two different trials, held at the venues of Verducido (Galicia) and Trasona (Asturias), Spain have decided its teams to paddle at the European Championships to be held at Zagreb (CRO) for the seniors in late June and at Montemor-o-Velho (POR) in mid July for juniors and U23.

No doubt about the main character at this trials: Javier Hernanz, after his olympic dissapointment, has won the three events he was competing at: K2 500 and K2 1.000, with his usual partner Diego Cosgaya, and also the K1 5.000, where he got the bronze medal at World Cup 1 at Poznan, last week. Also to remark the victory of Íñigo Peña in K1, both in 500 and in 1.000, earning the right to represent Spain at both the senior and the U23 Europeans, as it's also the case of Carlos Arévalo. This last one, who already showed a great performance at the 200 metres Spanish Cup, winning both K1 and K2, took this time the K1 spot, leaving second the main favourite, the Basque Ekaitz Saies. Something similar happened at the K2, where almost nobody was betting for youngsters Paulino Otero and Cristian Toro, who surprisingly left out of the National Team current and former World Champions, like Fran Llera, Pablo Andrés or Carlos Pérez Rial.

Day 1 at Poznan European Sprint Qualifier, the Spanish review

Spain has gone through the first day of the Poznan Sprint European  Olympic Qualifiers with satisfying results. Five boats out of six competing today are already in tomorrow finals. The C2 1.000 of Bouza/Fernández was already into the final as there are just 9 contestants.

Of those racing today, only the K1 200 of the Saúl Craviotto is pending of a semifinal tomorrow morning. Luckily, it seems that he will be paddling an easier semi, as in the second one people like Öström, Balciunas or Novakovic won't be able to fail if they want the three positions going to the final. Already waiting, as they qualified straight from the heats, are the Italian Rizza, the Belgian Richard and the Ukranian Kharitonov. Nevertheless, we will see which aspect shows tomorrow the weather at Poznan, after a cold and windy day today that made the course bumpy and tough to paddle, even more in such an explosive distance as the 200.

Spain has decided the K2 and C2 to go for the Olympic berths

After the first day of national trials in Spain to choose the paddlers who will fight for the olympic berths at the European Preolympic at Poznan (Poland), the K2 and the C2 are already decided. The Verducido Dam has seen closed races in a chilly rainy morning, but the contestants have given a true spectacle to the last metre of the course. In K2, the defending couple, Javier Hernanz and Diego Cosgaya, have set the best time, stopping the clock in 3'22" and avoiding that way a second race in case they have lost, so they have earned the right to be the Spanish contestants at Poznan. In second position arrived Víctor Rodríguez and Diego Piña (3'24"), who were a serious menace through the first three quartes of the race, head by head in the lead, but couldn't keep the winners pace over the las 200 metres. Third place went to Emilio Merchán and Pablo Baños (3'26").

Twenty minutes later it was the time for the C2, with five boats on the start line. It was a direct final, so the winner would earn the place for Poznan with no second leg possible.