Canoeing-Kayaking: Zanni crowned junior sprint world champion

Looking back at these five days of competition, it's pretty good. Indeed, from the very first day, the two Périgord natives present at these Junior Downhill World Championships in Solkan, Slovenia, achieved great results, with a title at stake.

After perhaps a somewhat timid start, such as this 6th place for Mattéo Zanni (Marsac-sur-l'Isle) in the individual classic canoe race and the 13th place for Emma Lacoste (Castelnaud) in kayak, the two competitors managed, once again, to win a medal each in the classic but as a team. A silver for Zanni and a bronze for Lacoste. This boded well for the future, particularly the sprint events.

"It's my favorite discipline," Mattéo Zanni admitted at the time. And even though the canoeist wasn't sure what his international standing was, he secured a fine third place in qualifying on Friday, thus securing his automatic spot in the final, without having to go through the repechage rounds. This wasn't the case for Emma Lacoste, who had to go through a second round of qualifying rounds to secure a spot in the final. With this result, the kayaker from Castelnaud wasn't one of the favorites.

Four medals in one day

But the Périgourdine native defied the statistics with a fine silver medal in the individual event. The junior world runner-up even led her team, composed of Laura Fontaine and Eve Vitali-Guilbert, to victory in the team event.

The French women are therefore U23 world champions in downhill (sprint). A very fine performance that was followed by the silver medal in the boys' race, with Mattéo Zanni, Gaëtan Rousseau and Jan Gabin Pischek.

Mattéo Zanni, in the individual event, climbed onto the top step of the podium. "That's what I was aiming for, the title," he stated simply. The Marsac native brought the junior world champion title back to Dordogne, and for an international debut, that's a great achievement!