Ana Brito wins the K1 500 to give Portugal a fifth gold in Taranto
The canoeist won in 2:00.73 and closed Portugal's canoeing programme at the Mediterranean Games with two golds and two silvers. The team has eight medals after three days.
Ana Brito won the K1 500 metres at the Mediterranean Games in Taranto on Sunday in 2:00.73. Cyprus’s Savvia Hadjicharalambous finished 1.46 seconds back and Serbia’s Zsofi Horvat took bronze at 1.86. It is Portugal’s fifth title of these Games and canoeing’s second.
The first came from Bruno Brasileiro in the K1 1,000, led from start to finish in 3:48.79. Portugal’s three other champions so far came from elsewhere: cyclist Tiago Antunes in the time trial, and swimmers Camila Rebelo in the 200 backstroke and Francisca Martins in the 400 freestyle.
Three days on the Mar Piccolo, four medals
Canoeing raced from 21 to 23 August at Parco Cimino, on the edge of the Mar Piccolo, and left with two golds and two silvers. The silvers went to Iago Bebiano and André Moreira in the K2 500 and to Tiago Maciel in the C1 1,000.
Four medals from four finals is a return the sport rarely manages outside a world or European championship, and it follows a strong season — in July, Gabriel Fernandes became European marathon canoeing champion.
Eight medals, eleven days still to run
Add it up and Portugal has five golds, two silvers and one bronze. The bronze belongs to Rafael Reis, in the same time trial Antunes won. Eight medals after three days of competition, with the Games running to 3 September.
Some perspective is worth keeping. Portugal’s best-ever showing at these Games was Oran 2022: 25 medals and ninth place overall. Eight in three days is close to a third of that record, but the sports still to come — athletics, judo, the team events — are usually the ones that settle the final count.
This is also the largest delegation Portugal has sent: 168 athletes across 28 sports, 116 of them competing here for the first time, with boxing, padel, speed skating and skateboarding all making their debut. It is the same generation that brought home three athletics medals from the European Championships in Birmingham earlier this summer.
By Vasco Almada
Image: Portuguese Olympic Committee
