Frenchman Nicolas Sauteur had a sensational outing at the 2025 International Canoe Federation Wildwater Canoeing World Cup 1-3 in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, winning six medals, with five of them being gold.
He won titles in the men's canoe double classic, canoe single sprint, C2 sprint, C1 classic mass start, and a silver in the C1 classic.
The dust had barely settled on an incredible 2025 ICF Junior and U23 Wildwater Canoeing World Championships, but many of the stars from Solkan also went on to bag podium places a week later.
Sauteur combined with Theo Viens in all the double boats, and they were more than 15 seconds faster than their compatriots and silver medallists Clement Monjanel and Correntin Combe in 17:22.73, with bronze going to Adam Ondrich and Samuel Vejnar in 12:44.65 in the men's C2 classic.
Viens pipped Sauteur to silver in the C1 classic in 17:33.71, and Czechia's Matous Beier took bronze.
But the 27-year-old Sauteur returned stronger in the C1 sprint, taking the gold medal in 52.20 as Matej Vanek of Czechia finished second and Charles Ferrion of France third.
Sauteur and Viens posted 50.50 for the C2 sprint title as Combe and Monjanel followed for silver 0.27 later. Ondrej Kvapil and Tobias Trnka, one of the many medal winners for Czechia in Solkan, combined for the bronze medal in 52.12.
In the C1 classic mass start, a difference of 19.70 separated Sauteur and silver medallist Viens, who posted 18:20.38 as Beier added to his bronze in 18:31.09.
The C2 classic mass start once again saw familiar names on the podium with Sauteur and Viens clinching gold in 17:24.49, followed by Combe and Monjanel in second and Ondrich and Vejnar in third.
Sophia Schmidt helped Germany to the top of the podium in the women's K1 classic, timing 16:57.84 to beat Italian sensation Cecilia Panato and Kerry Christie of Great Britain, who claimed silver and bronze, respectively.
Panato made up for that in the women's C1 classic, cruising to gold in 19:20.37 as Laura Fontaine of France bagged silver and Katarina Kopunova bronze.
Ana Steblaj of Slovenia came out on top in the women's K1 sprint, as the French duo of Emma Lacoste and Fontaine bagged the other two podium spots.
Fontaine did not stop there as she went on to win the C1 sprint in 58.61, meaning she had at least one medal of each colour.
The Swiss pair of Mona Clavadetscher and Hannah Mueller triumphed in the women's C2 sprint, as Great Britain's Kerry Christie and Emma Christie finished second in 59.12, 1.15 later, with bronze going to Elsa Gaubert and Phenecia Dupras of France.
The men's K1 sprint final was won by a whisker as Luis Clavadetscher of Switzerland crossed the line in 44.39, only 0.06 faster than silver medallist Anze Urankar of Slovenia and 0.10 faster than bronze medallist Luca Barone of France.
Picture by KKK Vrbas
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