Water Slalom World Cup, Men's C1 Final, June 10, 2023, Prague. Jiří Prskavec from the Czech Republic at the finish line.
Prague – The semi-final winner Jiří Prskavec in the final of the canoe race at the World Cup in Troja broke the permitted strap that holds his legs in the boat. Even after ninth place, he was satisfied with his performance in the supplementary category and moderated the expectations that could have been caused by the bronze medal from the previous SP race in Augsburg or today's semi-final performance. He pointed out that he is not yet nearly as confident in canoeing as he is in kayaking, in which he is an Olympic champion and two-time world champion.
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Because of the loose strap, he was afraid of tilts on the track, and in the final he drove the final combination differently than in the semi-final. “I was driving her from the left and it wasn't the right way,” he lamented. He has problems with the strap quite often. “It's already happened to me during nominations at about two races. It always results from the fact that I simply cut it a lot somewhere, I push the court with a lot of force and it gives way. that's a bit unpleasant. Again, I don't want to make excuses for this. I even won the nomination with that,” explained the thirty-year-old water slalom skier.
With his performance in the semifinals, he would have ranked second in the finals. There were passages that suited him exceptionally well and where he gained in comparison to the elite canoeists. “I think just today the short staggered goals where I was able to flip (the paddle) I went the fastest. And I don't think the singles can go any faster. It's because I just get up there and I can jump back there better. Those are the moments where I can buy time for them. But it's definitely not that it should be like this normally,” he said.
He knew that it would be difficult to repeat the semi-final run in the fight for medals. “I still think that it's a bit of a coincidence on the single that it suited me. It's not my ride, which I would ride seven times out of ten. It just isn't. The success rate is lower there and I have to take it that way,” he said.< /p>
In any case, the elite kayaker Prskavec won two finals from his first international canoe starts. But with ambitions for further races, he is holding back. “I drove two races, one of them was at home, and Augsburg is a very specific track, and in addition, the goals that were marked there played a lot for me to change my paddle. So I would still be a little careful. But I'm glad that I got close to those guys and that I was able to 'delete' them in the semi-finals,” said the winner of Friday's kayak race.
After the triumph, he planned to put success behind him and focus on the second category. He did not succeed, in the evening, after the children were asleep, he enjoyed his winning ride. “I had a terrible urge to just let it go. And as I already let it go once, like a true addict I let it go ten more times. I saw it enough times. But I fell asleep again with such a pleasant mood, I was satisfied,” he revealed .
