CANOE/KAYAK SLALOM: Jessica Fox has advanced to the women’s K1 semi-finals on Saturday following the first day of racing at the ICF slalom World Championships in London.

The reigning world champion was made to fight for her place in the semi-finals after finishing 38th on her first run after a mistake in the middle section of the course.

The 21 year old bounced back on her second run, producing the third fastest time of 94.70 to comfortably advance to the semi-finals.

Fox admitted to be very nervous on the start line.

“I was nervous this morning but ready to go,” Fox said.

“I had a good first run up until that middle section where I had a big error and needed to paddle back for a gate so it was a fast run despite that, so the second run I had to be online everywhere to make sure that I qualified in the top ten.”

“I think I was a bit shaky but it was enough for third so I am safely in.”

Fellow Australian’s Rosalyn Lawrence and Alison Borrows missed out on a place in the semi-finals after finishing 17th and 37th respectively on their second runs.

A touch on gate 20 proved costly for Lawrence, relegating her outside the top ten, missing out on a semi-final berth by 1.45 seconds.

“I didn’t paddle as well as I would have liked so I will just focus on the C1 now,” Lawrence said.

“I had a bit more trouble than I expected, I was just not firing like I had hoped to be, but there is always next time.”

Borrows first World Championships in a K1 boat did not go as planned despite the course’s simple gate configuration.

“It is pretty straight forward but I turned a bit early, tried to cut the line a bit tight and it didn’t pay off for me,” Borrows said.

All three Australian women will race the C1 heats tomorrow.

Robin Jeffery, Kynan Maley and Ethan Hodson will also feature in the men’s C1 heats.

Canoeing Australia