Canoe slalom Olympic champion Ricarda Funk won the gold medal at the European Games, just like the German men in table tennis. There was silver for women there, as well as for the judoka in mixed.
The 31-year-old Funk won on Saturday (July 1st, 2023) in the one-man kayak in 99.09 seconds ahead of Poland’s Klaudia Zwolinska (101.06 seconds) and the Czech Tereza Fiserova (102.34).
The second German finalist Elena Lilik (Weimar) didn’t do so well on the course and finished the race in tenth place (110.71). After one gold and two bronze medals in the team competitions, this is the fourth medal for the German canoe team at the major event in Poland. There are up to four more chances in the final competitions on Sunday.
Gold and silver in table tennis
In table tennis, the German men won the gold medal even without Timo Boll. Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Patrick Franziska and Dang Qiu beat Sweden 3-1 in the final.
After the doubles, Germany was still behind: Ovtcharov and Franziska lost 3-1 to the Swedish duo Truls Moregardh and Kristian Karlsson. But then the Germans turned up the heat. Qiu did not lose a set in the 3-0 win against Anton Kallberg, then Franziska took the lead with a 3-2 win against Karlsson. Ovtcharov made everything clear in the 3-0 win against Kallberg.
The German table tennis players leave with silver medals. In the team competition, Nina Mittelham, Shan Xiaona and Han Ying lost the final against Romania 2-3 in sets. After the narrow opening defeat of the doubles Mittelham/Xiaona over five sets (2:3), the following individual games were also hard fought.
In the decisive fifth duel, the 26-year-old Mittelham lost 0:3 against the nerve-racking Bernadette Szocs (28). After gold in the mixed team, which gave Mittelham the Olympic ticket for 2024, it was the second medal for the top German player in Kraków.
Ski jumper Raimund wins bronze on the large hill
Ski jumper Philipp Raimund managed a surprise in Zakopane by winning the bronze medal. When jumping from the large hill, the 23-year-old finished with jumps of 138.0 and 132.5 meters only behind the winner Dawid Kubacki (140.0 meters/134.5 meters) from Poland and the Austrian Jan Hörl (140.0/130 ,0). It was the second medal for the DSV team at the European Games, after Selina had also won bronze the day before.
Georgia too strong for judoka again
The German judoka lost the final against Georgia in the mixed team with 1:4. As at the World Championships in May in Doha, Qatar, the Georgian team was too strong for the Germans in a decisive battle on the mat, who only managed fifth place at the time.
Olympic entry places for modern pentathletes
Germany’s modern pentathletes missed the hoped-for podium places at the European Games. Marvin Dogue from Potsdam finished sixth on Saturday, but this secured the association a quota starting place at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. With 1,515 points after riding, fencing, swimming and laser running, he was only 19 points behind winner Giorgio Malan from Italy at the European Championships. His brother Patrick Dogue finished tenth with 1,495 points.
In the women’s race, Annika Zillekens also got a starting place for Paris in eighth place. The Berliner collects 1,413 points and thus 30 fewer than title holder Alice Sotero from Italy. Rebecca Langrehr from Berlin (1,405 points) and Potsdam’s Janine Kohlmann (1,398) finished tenth and twelfth. At the European Championship, the first eight quota places were awarded to Paris for both men and women.
