Fernando Pimenta closed the Portuguese participation in the Canoeing World Championship with a silver medal, which concluded on Sunday in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The Portuguese canoeist finished in second place in the K1 5000m event, with portages, ensuring the sixth medal for Portugal in the competition.
Pimenta arrived at the final event of the day having already completed two other events earlier in the morning. He started Sunday by winning silver in the K1 500m, before snatching bronze in the mixed K4 200m. The 5000m “marathon” was already the third mission for the Portuguese, while Mads Petersen, the reigning world champion who renewed his title, appeared fresher to compete.
The Portuguese Olympian sought to lead from the start, thus preventing the paddling of the opponents ahead from splashing water into his kayak. And the strategy worked for about half of the race, with two portages completed ahead of Pedersen, a faster canoeist during those transition moments out of the water.
However, from the moment the Dane, a specialist in longer distances, moved to the front, he accelerated the pace and managed to break away from Pimenta’s chase, who began to worry about the shadow of the third-place competitor, the Swede Joakim Lindberg. But the Portuguese defended himself well and held onto second place, 15.609 seconds behind the winner, who crossed the finish line in 22m39.488s.
Fernando Pimenta, who was world champion in the distance in 2017 (Racice) and in 2018 (Montemor-o-Velho), silver medalist in 2021 (Copenhagen) and in 2023 (Duisburg), and bronze medalist in 2019 (Szeged), thus adds another podium to his curriculum, elevating his achievements to enviable numbers.
As for Portugal, it completed a remarkable performance in Samarkand. With only four canoeists registered, it qualified for all the finals it participated in and won medals in all, finishing with two gold medals, three silver, and one bronze.