A huge success was achieved last week by Kristina Novosadová, a student of the Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia. At the Wildwater Canoeing World Championships in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the second-year bachelor’s student of Regional Development Management first claimed a bronze medal in the classic race and then added gold in the sprint on the final day of the championship, confirming the outstanding performance of the Czech team.
Kristina faced her first race on Wednesday, the opening day of the championship. Competing against 20 athletes, she finished with a time of 16:57.16, beaten only by Italians Cecilia Panato and Mathilde Rosa. With a gap of 24.31 seconds to the winner, she celebrated a bronze medal finish.
Her first sprint success came already in the qualification round, which she won with a time of 56.44 seconds, nearly seven tenths of a second ahead of the competition. Heading into Saturday’s final, she started last with a clear target — to beat the leading time of Germany’s Luisa Puttkammer, which stood at 58.64 seconds.
And she did exactly that. Kristina was faster by 0.14 seconds, and at the finish line it became clear that the Czech Republic - and Faculty of Economics - had a new world champion. “It’s an absolutely incredible feeling, I really didn’t expect this at all. I wanted to win a medal in the classic race, which I managed to do, and I wanted to make it to the sprint final. By that point, I had already achieved my goals. I definitely wasn’t aiming for another medal, so this is a huge surprise and I’m still trying to process it,” said the newly crowned champion for Kanoe.cz.
Congratulations to Kristina, and we wish her many more successes both in sport and in her studies!
