Gabriella Szabo, Tamara Csipes, Danuta Kozak and Krisztina Zur produced the best final run in the women’s event, clocking a time of 1min 30.940sec to triumph.

Belarus’ Marharyta Makhneva, Volha Khudzenka, Nadzeya Liapeshka and Maryna Litvinchuk came second in 1:31.380, while Germany’s Franziska Weber, Steffi Kriegerstein, Sabrina Hering and Tina Dietze were third in 1:32.280.

In the men’s event, Bence Nadas, Peter Molnar, Sandor Totka and Tamas Somoracz were the fastest in 1:19.760.

Slovakia’s Denis Mysak, Juraj Tarr, Erik Vlcek, Tibor Linka finished second in 1:20.560, while the foursomes from Spain - Francisco Cubelos, Albert Marti, Roi Rodriguez, Diego Cosgaya - and Russia - Artem Kuzakhmetov, Oleg Gusev, Aleksandr Sergeev, Vladislav Blintcov - crossed the finish line with the same time of 1:21.228 to share third place.

Hungarian-born Serbian athlete Kristina Bedec won the first gold medal of the Championships, producing a time of 4:00.840 to win the K1W 1,000m.

Tamara Takacs of Hungary was second in 4:00.988 and Germany’s Conny Wassmuth was third in 4:03.128.

Bedec was not the only Serbian gold medallist on the second day of competition in Russia’s capital with Milica Starovic and Dalma Benedek winning the women’s K2 1,000m event in a time of 3:38.564.

Takacs and fellow Hungarian Erika Medveczky came second in 3:40.444, followed by Romania’s Ciuta Florida and Iulia Taran in third with a time of 3:43.840.

Germany’s Max Hoff and Marcus Gross won the K2M 1,000m in 3:12.732, finishing ahead of Hungary’s Tibor Hufnagel and Bence Dombvari by 0.276 seconds and Serbia’s Marko Tomicevic and Milenko Zoric by 1.100 seconds.

Another gold medal came Germany’s way in the C1M 1,000m event thanks to Sebastian Brendel’s time of 3:51.248.

He was nearly a second quicker than Moldova’s Serghei Tarnovschi, who was followed onto the podium by Czech Republic’s Martin Fuksa.

Russia dominated the C2M and C4M 1,000m events with Alexey Korovashkov and Ilya Pervukhin stopping the clock at 3:37.804 in the former to receive a gold medal.

Belarusian brothers Andrei and Aliaksandr Bahdanovich were second with Hungary’s Henrik Vasbanyai and Robert Mike third. 

Russia’s Kirill Shamshurin, Viktor Melantyev, Rasul Ishmukhamedov and Vladislav Chebotar won the men’s C4 1,000m in 3:25.044 as Ukraine’s Denys Kovalenko, Vitaliy Verheles, Denys Kamerylov, Eduard Shemetylo took silver and Romania’s Chirila Iosif, Adi-Aurelian Grozuta, Petre Condrat, Simion Cosmin claimed bronze.

There were also victories for Portugal’s Fernando Pimenta in the K1M 1,000m and Belarus' Nadzeya Makarchanka and Alena Nazdrova in the C2W 500m.

Pimenta was more than three seconds faster than the rest of the field, posting 3:29.040 as Denmark’s René Holten Poulsen had to settle for the runners-up spot and Hungary’s Balint Kopasz third.

Russia’s Irina Andreeva and Olesia Romasenko and Hungary’s Virag Balla and Kincso Takacs were the respective silver and bronze medallists in the C2W 500m with both duos unable to match the time of 2:02.672 set by their Portuguese rivals.

The Championships are due to conclude tomorrow.