Carlos Arévalo, a soldier with the 3rd Infantry Regiment from Cabo Noval, Asturias, on Sunday became the first Spaniard to win two gold medals at the Canoe World Championships. At 29 years old, this Galician from Betanzos who progressed late in the sport of rowing, repeated in individual kayak what he had achieved on Saturday in the K4 team event, in a boat with four paddlers. Another gold coin hung from his neck.

Herminio Menéndez, David Cal, Saúl Craviotto and Teresa Portela, the myths of canoeing in Spain, could not achieve a feat equal to that of Arévalo in the…

Carlos Arévalo, a soldier with the 3rd Infantry Regiment from Cabo Noval, Asturias, on Sunday became the first Spaniard to win two gold medals at the Canoe World Championships. At 29 years old, this Galician from Betanzos who progressed late in the sport of rowing, repeated in individual kayak what he had achieved on Saturday in the K4 team event, in a boat with four paddlers. Another gold coin hung from his neck.

Herminio Menéndez, David Cal, Saúl Craviotto and Teresa Portela, the myths of canoeing in Spain, could not achieve a feat equal to that of Arévalo in the calm waters of Lake Banook, in Nova Scotia. The Galician went from a boat with four crew members to one with almost no specific preparation. He didn’t need it, judging by the impact of his sprintunstoppable in the K1 200 final, dominated the event from start to finish on a day that the Spanish delegation completed with a world haul of six medals, including four gold.

“It was a very difficult race with a headwind but I felt good and I’m very happy,” said Arévalo, bearded and dark-eyed. “The feelings were very good. Winning gold in K4 and now K1 is the best. “I can’t aspire to more.”

The paddler crossed the finish line in 36.43 seconds. Nearly three tenths ahead of the Swedish kayak, led by Petter Menning (36.71) and almost four tenths ahead of the Hungarian kayak, led by multi-champion Csizmadia (38.82). An immensity, given the possibilities offered by the sprint 200 meters, which will not be included in the Paris 2024 Games, but which allows us to measure Arévalo’s ability in K4, where he formed the team with the most potential in the world to attack Olympic gold.

Arévalo’s success rewards a unique career. The paddler even considered withdrawing from high-level competition after being left out of the rankings to attend the Rio Games in 2016. He was beaten by Saúl Craviotto and Cristian Toro, who ultimately became Olympic champions. Arévalo then worked hard to enter the army and only after a long hiatus did he begin to prepare to get a ticket to the Tokyo Games. There he finished fifth in the K1 200 and won silver in the K4 500 with Germade, Craviotto and Cooper. With the same teammates, he managed to become World Cup champion in Canada, in the final on Saturday.

The Spanish expedition was celebrating Arévalo’s gold when María Corbera secured second place in the C1 200 canoe final. After finishing fourth at the Racing World Cup, María had a strong final in Halifax, in a race which started well, with the domination of the Chinese. Lin Wenjun, who gave in to the power of the American Nevin Harrison (49.87), champion in 2019, and ended up losing in the fight for silver with María (50.54) by only a hundredth .

Team triumph

Finally, it was the canoe team, the C4, which gave Spain its sixth medal, the fourth gold of the championships, by winning the sprint 500 meters. Made up of Juan Moreno, Pablo Graña, Manuel Fontán and Adrián Sieiro, the team finished the final with a time of 1’39”42, ahead of Poland and Ukraine.

The C4 500 continued the great moment of the Spanish team boats, which won a grand World Cup final with the conquest of two gold medals and one silver. In a direct final, without prior classification, Spain took advantage of Germany’s absence at the last moment and was proclaimed world champion with the superiority demonstrated by Moreno, Graña, Fontán and Sieiro, who had 49 hundredths of ahead of the Poles Aleksander Kitewski, Arsen Sliwinski, Wiktor Glazunow and Norman Zezula, and in 1:10 seconds the Ukrainians Vitaliy Vergeles, Andrii Rybachok, Yurii Vandiuk and Taras Mishchuk.

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