CANOE/KAYAK SLALOM:Australia's men's and women's K1 teams have claimed a gold and bronze medal at the third ICF slalom World Cup in Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia. Jess Fox was knocked out of contention in the women's C1 event after getting a penalty after an appeal was lodged against her.
Men's K1 team
Jaxon Merritt, Daniel Watkins and Lucien Delfour have won gold in the men’s K1 teams final at the third ICF slalom World Cup in Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia overnight.
The Australian trio paddled at their very best to overhaul more favoured teams in the hotly contested team finale, executing a clean run to finish 0.44 seconds ahead of Poland.
"Our goal was for Lucien to get away as quickly as possible to open up a lead from gate six and he smoked it from the first stroke,” Merritt said.
"From then it was a question of Dan and I staying in close enough touch with his pace, giving each other space and staying clean behind him, which we did thankfully, teams is always the best fun.”
Watkins was stoked with their performance.
"We paddled safely and without mistakes and felt in control the whole way, it felt pretty good and we are obviously stoked to take the win," Watkins said.
Earlier Delfour and Merritt featured in the men’s K1 semifinal finishing 19th and 26th respectively.
"I was disappointed with my individual performance today but I felt really good out there in the team race and feel stoked with our performance, that's a great way to finish off the day," Delfour said.
For Merritt it was his third consecutive semifinal and he is building nicely with two world cups remaining prior to worlds in September.
“I have been happy with the way I have been progressing throughout the season,” Merritt said.
“I have been quite happy being able to perform under those second run situations and making the semifinal each time. I am pretty happy but still lots to improve on.”
National Head Coach Mike Druce was very proud of the team’s performances against the best paddlers in the world.
“Our boys executed their race plan perfectly and it's great to see how far they have come as a group and it demonstrates their potential," he said.
Women's K1 team
Jessica Fox, Kate Eckhardt and Noemie Fox have won bronze in the women’s K1 teams final at the third ICF slalom World Cup in Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia.
The Australian trio produced a clean run to finish 4.80 seconds behind Slovakia who won the gold ahead of the Czech Republic in 118.88.
In was a positive conclusion to the third of five world cups for the Australian team, taking their series medal tally to six.
It is the first time that the Fox sisters have shared a world cup podium, while for Eckhardt it was superb result for the 17 year old on her senior international debut.
Earlier, Jessica Fox finished ninth in the women’s K1 final.
The world champion got off to a good start to be up by more than a second at the first split.
A marginal time loss in gate 10 left her level with the leader Jana Dukatova. But then Fox got into trouble in the swirling water on the gate line of gate 14, a reverse manoeuvre, and drifted into the outside pole.
The judges called a 50 second penalty, judging she had not crossed the gate line and the announcer passed on the message for all to hear.
A disheartened Fox finished her run in a time of 155.73 before the 50 was changed to a two second penalty leaving her in ninth with a total of 107.73.
Dukatova returned to form in front of her home crowd to take the win by a good margin in 101.01.
Spanish pair Maialen Chourraut and Marta Martinez filled the minor placings, two seconds adrift of the Slovakian.
Fox was disappointed post-race but she has learnt a lot this weekend and has plenty to work on.
“Obviously I was disappointed with the outcome of C1 yesterday and had to swallow that and move on, which I did,” Fox said.
“I was fired up today and ready to race and went out hard which I am happy about. I misjudged 14 a little and got into trouble there, then I was distracted by the speaker saying I had a 50 and that affected me a little over the final third of my run. But no excuses, there's a lesson to learn right there. Stay focused!"
With bronze in the K1 team’s event, Fox takes her world cup medal tally to five and believes she is in a good place with two world cups remaining before the World Championships in September.
“Overall, I am happy I hit form for the first World Cup in Prague and that is a positive thing for me to build on for the next round of World Cups and the worlds, even if last week and this weekend were not as good as I had hoped for,” Fox said.
“There is still a long way to go in the season and I am looking forward to some solid training in Augsburg in Germany over the next couple of weeks and then the next round of World Cups in a month's time.”
The fourth World Cup will be held in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain from 7 to 9 August.
Women's C1
Jessica Fox has been controversially denied gold in the women’s C1 final at the third ICF slalom World Cup in Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia.
The 21 year old flew down the course to take the lead in a fast time of 113.47 with two paddlers to come.
However, an appeal was lodged and Fox’s touch on gate 19 was adjudged as a miss, adding 50 seconds to her time and relegating the world champion to eighth in the final.
British paddler Mallory Franklin won the gold in 117.28, 2.88 seconds ahead of Austrian Viktoria Wolffhardt.
Earlier, Noemie Fox missed out on joining her older sister in the final, finishing 12th in the semifinal.
Men's K1
In the men’s events, Lucien Delfour and Jaxon Merritt finished 19th and 26th respectively in the K1 semifinal.
Following a dominant third in yesterday’s heat, Delfour was unable to replicate the same speed in the semifinal.
With no major errors to speak of, Delfour backed off his pace on the top section and was never able to claw back the time he needed to make the final, falling short by a couple of seconds.
For Merritt it was his third consecutive semifinal and he is building nicely with two world cups remaining prior to worlds in September.
“I have been happy with the way I have been progressing throughout the season,” Merritt said.
“I have been quite happy being able to perform under those second run situations and making the semifinal each time. I am pretty happy but still lots to improve on.”
Men's C1
Ian Borrows produced a clean run to finish 20th in the men’s C1 semifinal.
The Penrith canoeist missed out on a place in the final by just under four seconds.
“It was alright. Most of it went to plan,” Borrows said.
Despite a small mistake on the top section of the course he was happy with his performance.
“The main thing was that it was clean, I think that has cost me a few places recently so it was good to have a clean run down, the bottom was good, it was just the top that kind of let me down a little bit”, Borrows said.
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