World champion Poulsen delights home crowd with Canoe Sprint World Cup victory in Copenhagen

Rene Poulsen was among the victors in Copenhagen ©AFP/Getty Images

Denmark’s René Poulsen claimed gold in the K1 500m on the final day of 2015 International Canoe Federation (ICF) Canoe Sprint World Cup in front of a home crowd in Copenhagen.

The reigning world champion pulled away from the field in the closing stages of the race to finish in 1min 42.104sec, with Germany’s Max Hoff and Uzbekistan’s Aleksey Mochalov claiming silver and bronze respectively.

Poulsen, who is an international ambassador for next month’s Baku 2015 European Games, claimed a third medal of the weekend in the K1m 5000m event, finishing seven seconds adrift of Australia’s Kenny Wallace, who comfortably clinched gold in 19:48.520, while Belgium’s Laurens Pannecoucke rounded off the podium in 20.09.190.

New Zealand's Lisa Carrington concluded her stellar World Cup season with victory in the K1 200m women’s event, continuing her unbeaten record in the discipline since London 2012, while Sweden’s Petter Menning was victorious in the men’s race.

German quartet Sabine Volz, Franziska Weber, Conny Wassmuth and Tina Dietze earned gold in the K4 500m event, before Volz and Weber claimed the K2 200m title ahead of their team mates.

Canada’s men’s K4 team claimed victory in the 200m event, with Russia securing gold in the women’s event.

Uzbekistan enjoyed success with Vadim Menkov and Serik Mirbekov taking the C2 500m title, with Dilnoza Rakhmatova adding gold in the men’s C1 500m.

Further winners on the final day in Copenhagen were Britain’s Liam Heath and Jonathan Schofield in the K2 200m, Italy’s Daniele Santini and Luca Incollingo in the men’s C2 200m, while Canada’s Gabriel Sevigny and Hungary’s Dóra Bodonyi won the C1 and K1 5,000m races respectively.

London 2012 bronze medallist Maialen Chourraut won the K1 women's canoe slalom event in Germany ©Getty Images

The final day of the European Canoe Slalom Championships in Markkleeberg, Germany, meanwhile, saw Spain’s Maialen Chourraut finish among the winners.

Chourraut ended 0.43 sec ahead of Ricarda Funk of Germany to take gold in the women’s K1 slalom, with the Czech Republic’s Katerina Kudejova seeing off competition from Britain’s Elizabeth Neave to take bronze.

Slovakia however were the dominant force in the team events, finishing clear of Poland and France in the K1 event, while they also earned gold in the C2 team event, with the Slovakian men seeing off competition from the Czech Republic to earn add another title.

While Slovakia took gold in both team events, Germany earned gold and silver in the C2 men’s final through with Robert Behling and Thomas Becker finishing ahead of their compatriots Franz Anton and Jan Benzien.