Hungary’s Vanda Kiszli and Emese Kohalmi celebrate after winning the women's K2 title ©Søren Wilhelmsen/2023 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships, Denmark

Hungary’s Vanda Kiszli captured her second gold of the International Canoe Federation Canoe Marathon World Championships with victory in a gripping women’s K2 race here.

Just 24 hours after sweeping aside the rest of the field to be crowned women’s K1 champion, Kiszli was back standing on the top of the podium at Lake Jels.

But unlike yesterday, Kiszli had to fight until the bitter end to ensure top spot alongside teammate Emese Kohalmi.

There were just 0.43 seconds separating the top two as Kiszli and Kohalmi had to dig deep to overcome the challenge of Spain’s Fernandez and Tania Alvarez.

The Spaniard pushed hard for the victory but came agonisingly short as Kiszli and Kohalmi triumphed in 1hour 53min 31.57sec.

Hungary picked up gold and bronze in the women's K2 race as the country topped the overall standings ©Svend-Erik Boysen/2023 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships, Denmark
Hungary picked up gold and bronze in the women's K2 race as the country topped the overall standings ©Svend-Erik Boysen/2023 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships, Denmark

A time of 1:53.32.00. saw Fernandez and Alvarez take silver, while Hungary’s Csilla Rugasi and Panna Csepe secured the final place on the podium after finishing in 1:53:32.45.

Kiszli helped Hungary top the overall standings having claimed seven golds, four silvers and five bronzes across the junior, under-23 and senior races.

Spain's Manuel Campos backed up his victory in the men’s C1 with success in the men’s C2 after teaming up with Diego Romero.

The Spanish pair pipped compatriots Fernando Busto and Diego Miguens in a thrilling fight to the finish.

Campos and Romero clinched victory in 1:37:29.06 with Busto and Miguen coming second in 1:37:47.21.

The bronze medal went to Poland’s Mateusz Zuchora and Mateusz Borgiel who clocked a time of 1:38:05.63.

Double Olympic medallist Fernando Pimenta of Portugal claimed his second title of the week after joining forces with Jose Ramalho to clinch men’s K2 gold.

Pimenta, who won the men’s K1 short race, and Ramalho were pushed all the way before winning in 1:54:35.11.

There was no shortage of drama on the final day of competition at Lake Jels in Denmark ©Svend-Erik Boysen/2023 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships, Denmark
There was no shortage of drama on the final day of competition at Lake Jels in Denmark ©Svend-Erik Boysen/2023 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships, Denmark

France’s Quentin Urban and Jeremy Candy had to settle for silver in 1:54:35.89, while Jon Vold and Eivind Vold of Norway teamed up to win bronze in 1:54:36.42.

Denmark’s Soren Maretti and Philip Knudsen narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing in 1:54:44.30 for fourth place.

The men’s junior K2 contest also went down to the wire with Argentina’s Vincent Vergauven and Joaquin Catalano emerging victorious.

It was an incident-packed race with several boats capsizing before the Argentinians came out on top.

Vergauven and Catalano prevailed in 1:31:13.37, fending off a challenge from Hungarian pair Daniel Zemen and Arpad Kekesi who crossed in 1:31:26.07 for silver.

Spain’s Ruben Castilla and Arturo Aguilar completed the podium securing bronze in 1:31:36.58.