News

The British paddler delivered a clean 100.47-second run to beat France’s Doriane Delassus by just 0.03 seconds, with reigning World champion Tereza Kneblova completing the podium only 0.46 behind the winner.

For Franklin, the victory transformed the story of her Friday.

Only hours earlier, she had finished 15th in the women’s K1 semifinal and missed the final.

In C1, she responded in the best possible way — with European gold.

Franklin turns K1 disappointment into C1 gold

Franklin entered the C1 final after qualifying fifth from the semifinal with a clean 103.58.

She had already shown that her C1 campaign was developing very differently from K1, but the final took that recovery to another level.

Her 100.47 was more than three seconds faster than her semifinal time and, crucially, completely clean. It was enough.But only just.

Doriane Delassus stopped the clock at 100.50, leaving only three hundredths of a second between gold and silver.

For Franklin, a former European champion in C1, the result marks a return to the top of the continental podium and a dramatic turnaround within the space of a few hours.

Delassus misses gold by three hundredths

Doriane Delassus came agonisingly close to one of the biggest victories of her career.

The French paddler had qualified 12th — the final athlete through from the semifinal — with 106.50.

Once the clock reset for the final, that position meant nothing.

Delassus produced a superb clean run of 100.50, improving by six seconds and moving to the top of the standings until Franklin edged her by just 0.03.

The margin could hardly have been smaller.

Over a run lasting more than 100 seconds, just three hundredths separated the European champion from the silver medallist.

World champion Kneblova takes bronze

Tereza Kneblova completed an exceptional podium.

The reigning World champion had qualified only 11th from the semifinal with 106.41, but like Delassus she produced a major improvement when the medals were decided.

Her clean 100.93 secured bronze, only 0.46 seconds behind Franklin.

The Czech athlete therefore adds a European medal to the World title she won earlier in the season.

And the closeness of the podium tells the story of the final: 0.46 seconds covered all three medallists.

Zwolinska’s remarkable double bid ends in seventh

Much of the attention before the final surrounded Klaudia Zwolinska.

The Polish athlete had already become European champion in K1 earlier on Friday and then returned in the afternoon to win the C1 semifinal with a clean 101.15.

For a few hours, an extraordinary K1-C1 European double was within reach.

But the final proved different.

Zwolinska remained clean but stopped the clock at 104.30, 3.83 seconds behind Franklin and only good enough for seventh place.

There were no penalties to explain the difference.

The final was simply faster.

Franklin, Delassus, Kneblova, Pankova, Marx and Herzog all produced better total times.

Nevertheless, Friday remains an exceptional day for Zwolinska: European K1 gold followed by a seventh-place finish in a second individual European final only a few hours later.

Pankova just outside the podium

Zuzana Pankova produced another strong performance after also reaching the K1 final earlier in the day.

The Slovakian finished fourth in 102.15, 1.22 seconds behind Kneblova and 1.68 behind the champion.

Pankova had finished eighth in K1 before returning for C1.

Like Zwolinska, Alena Marx and Eva Alina Hocevar, she therefore contested two individual finals on the same day.

Switzerland’s Marx finished fifth with a clean 102.73, while Andrea Herzog took sixth in 103.01.

Herzog’s result was notable after she had shown enormous raw speed in the semifinal but lost four seconds to penalties.

This time she went clean, but the pace at the front was even higher.

Woods finishes eighth after difficult K1 campaign

Kimberley Woods also completed a major recovery from her K1 result.

The British athlete had been eliminated during Thursday’s K1 heats after penalties dropped her outside the semifinal positions.

In C1, she safely qualified for the final and ultimately finished eighth with a clean 105.60.

Together with Franklin’s gold, that gave Great Britain two athletes inside the top eight.

For Franklin especially, the contrast could hardly have been greater: outside the K1 final in the morning, European C1 champion in the afternoon.

Doria’s title defence ends with a 50-second penalty

Defending European champion Monica Doria experienced the most dramatic reversal of the final.

The Andorran had qualified seventh from the semifinal and entered the medal race as both the defending European champion and 2026 World silver medallist.

Her raw final time of 106.14 was already outside the medal positions, but a 50-second penalty increased her total to 156.14 and left her 12th.

Her title defence therefore ended at the bottom of the final classification.

Taisiia Pospelova was the other athlete heavily affected by penalties, receiving six seconds and finishing 11th on 114.52.

Five K1 finalists return — but the podium completely changes

One of the most interesting features of the women’s C1 final was its crossover with the K1 medal race earlier in the day.

Five women competed in both finals:

Klaudia Zwolinska, Alena Marx, Eva Alina Hocevar, Zuzana Pankova and Monica Doria.

But none of them reached the C1 podium.

In K1, Zwolinska had won gold and Doria had finished fourth.

In C1, the medals instead went to Franklin, Delassus and Kneblova — three athletes who had not contested the K1 final.

It underlined just how different the two disciplines became despite several athletes competing in both.

From 12th qualifier to silver

Perhaps the strongest illustration of why semifinal results cannot be carried into a final came from Doriane Delassus.

She entered as the 12th and final qualifier. Kneblova started from 11th. Yet they finished second and third.

By contrast, semifinal winner Zwolinska finished seventh, while Hocevar — second in the semifinal — ended the final in tenth with 106.28.

The final completely reset the competition. And Franklin took full advantage.

Franklin returns to the European throne

The final podium:

Mallory Franklin (GBR) — 100.47
Doriane Delassus (FRA) — 100.50 (+0.03)
Tereza Kneblova (CZE) — 100.93 (+0.46)

Three countries. Three clean runs. And less than half a second covering the entire podium.

For Zwolinska, the remarkable double did not happen.

For Kneblova, another major championship medal followed her World title.

For Delassus, three hundredths separated silver from gold.

But after a morning of disappointment in K1, Mallory Franklin produced the response of a champion — and by just 0.03 seconds, she is European champion again.