Carlos Arévalo's rowing makes history in Canada

Carlos Arévalo, soldier of the Infantry Regiment Number 3 of Cabo Noval, Asturias, became this Sunday the first Spaniard to win two golds in a Canoeing World Championship.

At 29, this Galician from Betanzos who made late progress in the sport of rowing, repeated in the individual kayak what he had achieved on Saturday in the K4 team test, in the four paddler boat.

Another gold hung from his neck.

Herminio Menéndez, David Cal, Saúl Craviotto and Teresa Portela, the myths of canoeing in Spain, could not achieve a feat equal to that of Arévalo in the calm waters of Lake Banook, in Nova Scotia.

The Galician jumped from the ship with four crew members to one with hardly any specific preparation.

He didn't need to, judging by the impact of his

, unstoppable in the K1 200 final, he dominated the race from end to end in a day that the Spanish delegation completed with an overall harvest of six medals, four gold.

“It was a very hard regatta with a headwind but I felt good and I'm very happy”, said Arévalo, bearded and with wide eyes.

“The sensations have been very good.

Winning gold in K4 and now in K1 is the best.

I can't aspire to more."

The paddler passed the finish line in 36.43 seconds.

He was almost three tenths ahead of the Swedish kayak, led by Petter Menning (36.71) and almost four tenths ahead of the Hungarian kayak, led by multi-champion Csizmadia (38.82).

An immensity, considering the possibilities offered by the 200-meter

, which will not be included in the 2024 Paris Games, but which allows Arévalo's ability to be measured in K4, where he has formed the team with the most potential in the world to assault the olympic gold.

Arévalo's success rewards a unique career.

The paddler even considered retiring from the top competition after being out of the classification to attend the Rio Games in 2016. He was beaten by Saúl Craviotto and Cristian Toro, who ultimately became Olympic champions.

Arévalo then struggled to enter the Army and only after a long parenthesis did he begin to prepare to obtain the ticket for the Tokyo Games.

There he was fifth in the K1 200 and took silver in the K4 500 alongside Germade, Craviotto and Cooper.

With the same teammates he managed to be champion in the World Cup in Canada, in the final on Saturday.

The Spanish expedition celebrated the gold of Arévalo when María Corbera obtained second place in the C1 200 canoe final. After being fourth in the Race World Cup, María signed a great final in Halifax, in a test that started well, with the dominance of the Chinese Lin Wenjun, who gave in to the power of the American Nevin Harrison (49.87), champion in 2019, and ended up giving in the fight for silver with María (50.54) by only one hundredth.

triumph of the teams

Finally, it was the canoe team, the C4, which gave Spain its sixth medal, the fourth gold of the championships, by winning the

500-meter

Made up of Juan Moreno, Pablo Graña, Manuel Fontán and Adrián Sieiro, the team completed the final with a time of 1m 39.42s, ahead of Poland and Ukraine.

The C4 500 extended the great moment in the boats of the Spanish team, which starred in a great World Cup final with the conquest of two gold medals and one silver.

In a direct final, without prior classification, Spain took advantage of Germany's absence at the last moment and became world champions with superiority shown by Moreno, Graña, Fontán and Sieiro, who were 49 hundredths ahead of the Poles Aleksander Kitewski, Arsen Sliwinski , Wiktor Glazunow and Norman Zezula, and in 1:10 seconds the Ukrainians Vitaliy Vergeles, Andrii Rybachok, Yurii Vandiuk and Taras Mishchuk.

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