Paris (AFP)
Denis Gargaud, reigning C1 Olympic champion, won the European Canoe-Kayak Slalom Championships in his discipline, held on Sunday in Ivrea (Italy), while he is only a replacement for the Tokyo Games this summer.
Already crowned Olympic champion (2016) and world champion (2011), Denis Gargaud, at the age of 33, completes his collection with a first European individual title.
"Like that, the circle is closed. I am really very happy with that. I see it as a reward, even if I do not know what I am rewarded with," he reacted to AFP.
Author of a clear round in the final, he beat the Slovak Matej Benus and the German Sideris Tasiadis.
The tricolor Nicolas Gestin took 5th place at just 21 years old.
Despite his track record and the form demonstrated in the first international competition of 2021, Denis Gargaud, as a substitute, should not play the Tokyo Olympics (July 23 - August 9), after being beaten in the selections last October. by Martin Thomas.
"I didn't think about the past, I run as if it was my last competition. My goal is the future, even if the hardest part had been to continue training", after the selections, he said. he adds.
"I can go to Paris in 2024, but the other French people are very strong, we'll see how it goes," continued the champion.
Like Martin Thomas in C1 (only 28th, eliminated in the semi-finals), the four selected Olympic tricolors missed their Euro.
Marjorie Delassus finished 27th in C1 on Sunday, the day after two disappointments in individual kayaking (Marie-Zélia Lafont 14th and Boris Neveu 19th).
Gargaud won the only individual medal of these championships on Sunday for the French team, which won bronze in the women's team canoeing.
© 2021 AFP