Immediately two silver medals for canoe Italy

Italy closes with two silver medals on the first day of the ICF Canoe Sprint & Paracanoe World Championships 2025 finals. It was Andrea Domenico Di Liberto in the K1 200 and Viktoryia Pistis Shablova in the VL1 200 who stood on the podium on Friday of competition, in front of a packed and noisy Idroscalo during the trials of the home crews.

The first Italian medal of the event came from a Di Liberto once again on the shields in the K1 200, a specialty where he had already been world champion in 2021 and two-time European champion (2021 and 2022). The Blue Flames athlete was second with a time of 34.54, behind Kolos Attila Csizmadia of Hungary (34.29) and ahead of Georgian Badri Kavelashvili (34.64). “I dreamed about this race all night – said the Palermo man after the final – I wanted another color, but the silver after the difficult year I had to face, in front of a public that made me feel its affection from the beginning to the end, is wonderful and represents a starting point in view of next year’s event”.

Shortly afterwards it was Viktoryia Pistis Shablova&#8217s turn in the VL1 200, who one year after her gold medal in Szeged confirmed her place at the top in her specialty, putting silver around her neck with a time of 1:12.63, behind Germany&#8217s Chinette Karin Lauridsen (1:06.99) and ahead of Japan&#8217s Monika Seryu (1:19.15).”Doing such a race at home is even more exciting – her comment after the final –I prepared myself hard for these World Championships. Already since yesterday I was fully focused for this moment. It’went well, I did my race, although I hoped until the’last that I could win”.