Olympic paracanoeist Alex Santos took fifth place this Saturday in the adapted KL1 race at the European Championships in Hungary, which runs until Sunday in Szeged.
The Portuguese completed the 200m in 54.329 seconds, 4.757 seconds behind France’s Remy Boulle, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic bronze medalist who beat Hungary’s Robert Suba, Rio 2016 silver medalist, by 0.636 seconds and Italy’s Esteban Farias by 2.660 seconds. .
“I am very pleased. We are working on Paris 2024. I have made progress, we are on the right track,” he congratulated himself, turning to Lusa.
Alex Santos highlighted his “strong race” in adverse conditions with a headwind, but he said overcoming it showed he was “on the right track” in his preparations for the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
“(In Paris) The indicator is to reach the final and then give it your all. Alex getting there is simply a success. The goal is to improve. Dream, dream until gold,” added the fifth-place finisher at Tokyo 2020 with a smile.
On Sunday it was the turn of Norberto Mourao, the Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist, to compete in the VL2 final.
The European Paracanoe Championships are integrated into the sport’s full program, in which Portugal already has a gold medal from Iago Bebiano and Kevin Santos in the K2 200m and a silver from Fernando Pimenta in the K1 500m.