The Hungarian women’s junior and U23 canoe sprint team have delivered an extraordinary performance on the first day of medal races at the ICF world championships, winning seven of the eight titles up for grabs in Portugal.

The Hungarians were ruthless in their performance, notching up wins in both junior and U23 races, and in both canoe and kayak. Only Germany’s Annika Loske in the women’s U23 C1 500 stood in the way of a clean sweep by the world powerhouse canoe sprint nation.

Among the Hungarian winners were reigning European champions Alida Gazso in the U23 K1 500, Agnes Kiss in the junior C1 500, and Sara Fojt in the junior K1 500.

There were also gold medals for Hungary in the women’s U23 C2 500, the junior C2 500, for Emese Kohalmi in the U23 K1 1000 and Anna Maro in the junior K1 1000.

Medals in the men’s competition were more evenly spread, with Germany picking up two titles, Spain two and single gold medals for Russia, Moldova and Italy.

Germany’s Martin Hiller held off Denmark’s reigning European champion Thorbjorn Rask to win the men’s U23 K1 1000, while teammate Moritz Adam triumphed in a strong U23 C1 1000 field.

Spain’s Alex Graneri led from start to finish to win the junior K1 1000 gold.

Sunday will see another 14 medals decided at the Montemor-o-Velho course.