Melbourne’s Warwick Draper has earned the right to be nominated to the Australian Olympic Team after a dramatic semi-final in the Men’s K1 at the Oceania Slalom Championships in Penrith here Sunday.

Going into the race in a three-way tussle with Will Forsythe of Armidale and Sydney’s Sam Lyons, it was all down to Forsythe who went down the course last of the Aussies, already knowing what time he had to beat.

Draper had set a time of 96.57, including a two second penalty for touching a gate, while Lyons had blown out with a slow time of 102.74.

But as Forsythe approached the penultimate gate, with his time fractionally better than Draper’s, disaster struck, as he touched the gate and his Olympic chances disappeared.

He finished in 98.38s.

Draper summed up his feelings after the race: “I think relieved is the biggest word to describe it.”

He said being the first Australian down the course, then having to wait for the others to complete their runs had been “nerve wracking”.

“Especially after doing a run that I wasn't happy with. I was pretty frustrated at the bottom after not finishing it off the way I liked,” he said.

“So to sit there and wait and to think it is in someone else’s hands now, that's always tough.

“But I guess the whole set up of the three races, for it to come down to the final race, having a win on the first race for me and a win on the second for Will, it just shows it is pretty tight, it’s pretty close and it was always going to go down to the wire for us.

“I just waited out that half an hour as best I could.”

He said London would be his “last throw of the dice”.

“I've been to two Olympic games and placed ninth (2004) and fifth (2008) at those two and decided if I was going to go back I was going to go with a shot at a medal,” he said.

“I think that is realistic given the quality of the men's K1 in Australia at the moment.

“I knew that to qualify was going to be tough and so that's the goal. I want to go to one more Olympics and give it everything and come back with a medal.”
Forsythe had felt that his semifinal run was clean.

“I thought the run was ok. I got a penalty that I'm not sure about so we will wait and see,” he said immediately after the run.

“I'll be pretty devastated if I don't get that touch off (removed) but that's slalom,” he said.

“That's sport. I guess that is why you do it. I put myself in a good spot to give it a shot and I missed so there is nothing I can do.”

Sam Lyons was philosophical about his performance.

“I put myself in position, but unfortunately the wave didn’t hold me and I slipped at the bottom,” he said.

“I raced with no fear and that is all I wanted.”

As for what he will do now: “It will be great to have some time off and catch up with family.”

Meanwhile, Australia’s teenage slalom starlet Jessica Fox capped a great two days of competition with a silver medal in the women's K1 event.

After earning the right to be nominated to the Australian Olympic Committee for a place in the K1 on Friday, she was sixth fastest in the semi-final early Saturday, and then pulled out a great run to finish second behind the Czech Republic’s Stepanka Hilgertova.

Fox said she was proud of the silver medal.

“I’m really happy. The aim for this race was to gain Olympic selection,” she said.

“So coming into the semi-final first of all I just wanted to put down a good run and see where that put me against the best paddlers in the world who are out here,” she said.

“That was good enough to make the final and to come away with a medal, I’m really happy with how I raced.

“It’s good to compares ourselves with (the top racers) and I’m really happy with how I’ve gone.”

Infostrada Sport for Australian Canoeing