Czechia claimed their second team’s gold medal in as many days, adding the kayak women’s team title to Tuesday’s triumph in the canoe team event at the ICF Slalom World Championship 2025.

The trio of Gabriela Satkova, Lucie Nesnidalova, and Antoine Galuskova denied Germany the top spot, with the Germans settling for silver, just as they did in the C1 team event.

Satkova was the only Czechia athlete to double up, adding a second gold to her tally after racing in Tuesday’s C1 team win.

Czechia sealed victory with a blistering performance, finishing more than three seconds ahead of Germany which collected a two second penalty, and third placed Slovenia which produced a more conservative, clean run to claim bronze.

In the men’s event, Japan was denied a historic victory by the unstoppable French team, who clinched gold with a razor-thin margin of just 0.06 seconds, edging the Japanese trio into silver.

Japan’s performance stunned several favoured nations, including bronze medalists Great Britain and Slovakia, who finished fourth.

Buoyed by the home crowd, the Australian contingent delivered a spirited showing to secure a top-five finish, the Aussie pairing of two-time Olympian Lucien Delfour, Paris Olympian Tim Anderson and Ben Pope, achieving their best ever result as a team.

The ICF Slalom World Championships are live and free on 9Now. For full results - click here

Competition continues Thursday with the men's and women's C1 finals with action getting underway from 10:30am AEST.

What the medalists said: 

WOMEN

Czechia – Gold

Gabriela Satkova

“I think we did a really good run. We were pretty tight in someupstreams, especially the last one - me and Antonie didn't know if we weregoing to hit each other or not. Luckily, it all went okay and it was actuallyfast in the end, so I'm really happy we took that risk and it brought us goldat the world championship. I think that's amazing.”

“On what gave them the X factor: I think it's trust and just beingable to handle any situation. You just watch each other and try to read thewater.” 

“On being friends with the other countries: Honestly, that's onething I love about this sport. I like to be around my friends and just to talkwith others, it's amazing. I feel like this sport has great friendships and Ilove it. I couldn't imagine life without it.” 

Lucie Nesnidalova

“I think it's really special to win gold in K1. We have the bigfour from the last few years, so it means a lot to win it and we'll start withthe big one on the next world championship. So it's amazing”. 

Antonie Galuskova

“On team dynamic: It was really amazing because we know each'spaddling well and we know each other's reactions. We all trust each other,which is the most important thing during this race, because we had many closecalls but because we trusted each other.” 

Germany – Silver

Ricarda Funk

“I think we have a good mindset, and we work quite well asa team. We were looking for each other, taking care of each other andI think this is the most important.”

“Competing with your team is quite special, because you're notalone at the starting line, you are not alone at the finish line. No matterwhat happens, if it's good or bad, we are together, it makes it more special.”

Emily Apel

“Just before the race, we told each other that we could do it. We put our fists together and screamed "Let's go".  We knew we had a good harmony and we trained for it, so it's really nice.”

Elena Lilik

“It feels really special because I didn't go through the heat this morning. So I'm more than happy that I will go back home with at least a medal, because the medals are really beautiful! I saw them yesterday from theC1 German team. It's the first time I compete at the Senior WorldChampionships, and the atmosphere is amazing.” 

Slovenia – Bronze

Ajda Novak

“It was amazing. I felt like we had a great run almost allthe way, we just had some problems at the end, but the course was tricky.”

Eva Alina Hocevar

“We still need to focus because we all still have some races togo. We will celebrate a bit today, but very quickly. The big celebration will be after all the races.”

Australia

Noemie Fox

On the vibe and the race performance:

“We went off last with a lot of pressure and, you know, the crowd started cheering before we went across the beam, before we started the race and I think we all just found our groove and it's just so cool to finish and feel so proud and kind of have that big lift during a World Championship week. So yeah, I loved it. I had so much fun and proud of our team.

Kate Eckhardt

On the team performance:

“I think we all worked really well together. We had some mistakes, but we recovered really well from those, and came back to put together a run we were all really proud of.”

Sarah Crosbee

On the crowd roar at the start:

 “It was incredible. We just like hearing everyone cheering for Australia, you could really feel it and getting pumped up for the run. It was definitely something.

MEN

Japan– Silver

Yusuke Muto

I’m so happy, it’s unbelievable

Everybody was so nervous waiting for the last team, we knew we could have a medal because the time was really good. My hand was shaking because I was so nervous.

We knew coming in to the championships, we knew we could do really good, but it’s unbelievable. It’s a dream come true.

Atanas Nikolovski – Japan Coach

They are three really good athletes, they are very fast and they are in the(individual) semi-final too.

We were really hoping for the medal, so I knew after the run it was a good run.But I knew also the gap would be very small.

It was 6/100 of a second – it was very close and a long wait before we knew we had a medal.

The result is perfect for Japan and the ICF because there’s a different team on the podium.

This is our first World Championships Teams medal, so it’s a really good result for everyone.

Great Britain - Bronze

Ben Haylett

Really happy with that performance. Joe (Clarke) and I had a bit of a nightmare of a morning, we didn't make it through the heats. So to refocus and go again was really good. We've had a bit of experience with teams over the years, but it's never been that tight of a race and 0.1 splitting the podium is outrageous. But we've paddled really well out there and left a little bit on the bottom, but overall pretty happy. 

On winning bronze for GB: It's always a privilege to stand on the podium, but to do it in the GB colours and be one of the three men who made the team in such a hard-fought discipline, it's very special. 

I'm done now. I got knocked out this morning. For the rest of the week, I'll see my family, they've made the trek out here. I'll be cheering on the team, enjoying the sun and wishing all the best for everyone.

Joe Clarke

We're going to go home and work on Johnny's (Dickson) reflex to reach for the line, because that's all the difference was. It's obviously good to be so tight, to be so close - it's better than being a million miles away, but also, it means that we were massively up on the splits and just got a little bit caught in the bottom section. So it's frustrating, but plenty more to come and hopefully we can use that as a slingshot to more successes in the future as a team. 

It would have been nice to go 0.1 quicker, so we can hear the national anthem. That's always the pinnacle, really, that's the goal. That's what we've come out here for. To see the flag still raising on the flag pole's is still pretty special.

On the world championships: The set up and the race at the moment is fantastic. The crowd's been good and obviously having it on TV as well, it's great for the sport and the profile and hopefully we get a few more people into the sport and young kids involved. 

Unfortunately, I went out in the heats this morning so it's pretty tough to swallow that one. I've still got the kayak cross on Saturday and got a good time trial in, so hopefully that can see me through to some good racing onSaturday. I've got two days off now, and some ways that's a blessing in disguise. It means I can freshen up ready for Saturday and come out all guns blazing. So it's not over yet, there's plenty more fight in me yet. 

Jonny Dickson

On Australia and the course: I think we all know it pretty well. We've been here before, it's probably as similar as we're going to get to our home venue. Everyone loves the area, it's so beautiful with the Blue Mountains.Everyone would happily stay here for much longer if they could. 

I have a day off tomorrow and then go again on Friday and then again on Saturday. So I'll just try and make the most of the time off and comeback fresh. I'll come down tomorrow, go for a little paddle on the flat, watching the rest of the team and try and set out the course.

Australia

Tim Anderson

“The crowd was awesome. It was pedal to the metal the whole way down, it was really close, one of the closest teams races we’ve done, we didn’t quite get on the podium today which was a bit disappointing but we’ve done ourselves really proud.”

 Ben Pope

On Teams event

“It’s always fun, it’s always something different doing Teams and to be able to something you don’t really train that often.”

“There’s also the serious side of things. Like you want a medal, you want to do well especially being a home World Championships, that would have been really good.”

Lucien Delfour

On team PB:

 “That was ourPB at a world champs, in terms of paddling that was our best I think, it’s unfortunate to miss out on a podium. But I think we can be proud.”

“We take it seriously, it’s not something we practice every day but it’s a different mindset.”

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