In the European Championship final, V. Korobovas completed the distance in 22.041 seconds. The Lithuanian lost to the European champion, Romanian Matei Barnu, by 0.126 seconds. The bronze was won by Spaniard Manuel Rojas (22.688 seconds).
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“I am very satisfied with the silver medal won, especially knowing the difficulties I had to overcome before the final not only on the race track,” said the European vice-champion.
The Lithuanian paddler had to compete in the European Championship not with his own paddleboard. Airlines did not allow him to fly with it, so he had to rent and borrow a paddleboard for the European Championship.
“Before the qualifying race and the semifinal, I couldn’t find and rent the model of paddleboard I paddle on. Because of that, the results were not very good. Also, health problems started. I strained my shoulder during training, so I had to take painkillers for two days,” said V. Korobovas.
In the sprint event qualifying, where a total of 19 participants started, the Lithuanian was second in his race (25.238 seconds), and third in the semifinal (24.332 seconds).
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Before the decisive start, having changed the paddleboard, V. Korobovas paddled several seconds faster in the final.
“Just before the European Championship final, I was very lucky because I found a colleague who competed in the seniors’ competition and agreed to lend me the model of paddleboard I use for the final. In the final, I concentrated and achieved the best time compared to those in the qualifying and semifinal,” said V. Korobovas.
This is already the third silver medal won by V. Korobovas in the most important international paddleboard competitions. V. Korobovas also became vice-champion at the first European paddleboard championship held in 2024. The silver was also won at last year’s world championship.
V. Korobovas will seek another medal at the world championship starting in Italy in two weeks.
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