A new medal for Spain (unexpected)
Men's slalom canoe
Thursday, 1 of August took part the slalom canoe men’s final and the Spanish slalom canoeist Pau Echaniz won bronze in Paris. This is the story of how he classified and entered the final.
Almost…
In the series the Spanish athlete didn’t have any problem, he had enough margin if any penalty could occur. The last classification did 2 minutes and 22 seconds and Pau 1 minute and 28 seconds.
In the semifinals is where Pau almost gets eliminated, only by a few seconds. Now the best athletes were starting to appear. Echaniz was the last classified of the semifinal, there were only passing 12 slalom canoeists to the final.
The Final is going to start
Everything is prepared, the order for starting depends on the position the athletes were in the semifinals. That means that Spain is going first, and will have to wait untill 11 competitors.
12th position = 1st to start in the final
11th position = 2nd to start in the final
10th position = 3rd to start in the final
…
What a race!!!!💯💯
Pau Echaniz concentrates, he is going to be the man who starts tthe competition… And here he goes, he begins with a good start, that’s crucial, and he supasses the 1st door without any problem. Pau is doing a good race, but not excelent, the first obstacles clean, no touch.
Now is where the things get complicated, the boat needs to speed up a little if he wants to be on the podium, let’s see… It’s one of the most complicated sections where most of the athletes got a penalitation, from door 6 to 8 (23 doors/obstacles in total) and he pased very well, if he continues like this he may be in the big three.
And the excellence is undeniable he make’s it through very clean, he surpasses the obstacle 9, the one that he touched in the semifinal.
Source: La Razón | Pau Echaniz at the Paris 2024 Olympics in slalom canoe.
Echaniz is going very fast, and he is surpassing almost all the obstcles without touchin and frontally (Saves a lot of time).
He’s very sharp, he continues without any penalitaion, incredible doing all the difficult parts without touching.
Ugh, a penalitation in the 19th door that’s going to be 2 seconds of added time to the final result, he was only 4 doors away from the finish line.
Magnificent comeback from Echaniz, great finish, the scoreboard indicates 86’87 ´+ 2 second of penalitation so 88’87 for the first athlete to compete in his final.
Video of his descent:
Source: Eurosport
Time to wait ⏳
Now is time for suffering, all the good ones are cooming, remember that Pau was last at the semifinal.
The first five didn’t do a good race except the Czech who was first in Tokio and now got a lot of penalties. Seems like someone is going to get there, but nothing, the athletes pass, till a French man Titouan Castryck does the descent in 88’42, only 0.45 seconds. Now France is first and Spain second.
The winner of gold in Rio, Joseph Clarke is out of the podium, another surprise, a lot of athletes are not doing good times due to the penalties, seems to be, and when Giovanni De Gennaro goes down, he doesn’t get any penalty and he continues with a brilliant descent… 88’22 so he has positioned him self first. And it’s bronze for Spain!!!!
Source: El Periódico Mediterraneo | Pau Echaniz with he’s bronze medal
I don’t know if you remember but Pau Echaniz classified last into the final, and now he’s bronze.
Sometimes ones can have a good day, an others a bad day.
Source: El Mundo | Pau Echaniz with he’s family and coaches.