Martina Wegman jolie 4th at the European Canoe Slalom Championship in Liptovsky, Slovakia

Martina Wegman jolie 4th at the European Canoe Slalom Championship in Liptovsky, Slovakia

Martina Wegman finished fourth at the European Canoe Slalom Championships in Liptovsky, Slovakia. He had 0.03 seconds left before winning a bronze medal. It would have been a historic medal for the Netherlands. Italian Stefanie Horn took the win, followed by Eliska Mintalova (Slo) and Mallory Franklin (GB).

It’s a great achievement for Wegman, who became the first Dutchman in 12 years to qualify for the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games for the canoe discipline. The goal was a final place. She got it, she came in seventh.

Wegman is now fully focused on Paris2024. The European Championship is the first highlight of the year. For this she trained in her home country of New Zealand and in February she traveled with her training partner Lena Teunissen to the Emirates for a training camp in the desert.

The objective of the European Championship was also a place in the final. She was close to bronze. Wegmann: ‘The route mapped out for the final did not suit me well today. I lost a lot of time in the middle of the race. The rest of the race went very well. I’m very happy with today’s result and the feeling I have on the water at the moment.†

Telmo Olazabal, coach of Martina: ‘It’s really a shame that we couldn’t win the first medal in the history of the Netherlands because of this 0.03! So plenty to do for the next stage: the World Cup July 5-10 in Italy.’

Other Dutch

Joris Otten also participated in the European Championship in K1 and C1. He didn’t make the semi-finals. His sister Maartje Otten and Lena Teunissen compete in K1. Ok, they didn’t reach the semi-finals.