CANOE/KAYAK - SLALOM: A great run down the Olympic rapids has seen paddler Jessica Fox rocket into this afternoon’s final of the women’s K1.

Fox, the youngest athlete in the field of 15 paddlers, negotiated the course in a total time of 112.63 seconds including two penalties. Though not the best run the young paddler is capable of, the score landed her in eighth position, well inside the top ten she needed.

She will now progress to the final this afternoon where she will be the third athlete down the course and will face some tough opposition from a field loaded with Olympic and World Champion medallists.

Earlier in the day, Australia’s canoe slalom pair of Kynan Maley and Robbie Jeffery have put down a superb run in the C2 semi-final today to finish their Olympic campaign.

The Aussie boys were the first boat down the course, and negotiated the rapids in a total time of 114.14 including two penalties. However shortly after crossing the line, one of their penalties, incurred at gate 2, was converted into a missed gate – dramatically adding 50 seconds to their score.

“There are two downstream judges and one upstream judge,” 30-year-old Maley explained. “The two downstream judges gave us two seconds, and the one upstream judge gave us 50.”

The chief judge agreed with the 50 second penalty and despite the fact that the video was inconclusive, the penalty remained.

Australian team officials protested the penalty but it was upheld.

“If it had been the difference between us making the final or not, I would be more upset about,” said Maley who together with Jeffery was confident that they had cleared gate 2. “At the end of the day, that’s our sport.”

With only the top six boats going through, Maley and Jeffery did not progress to the final, but were happy with how they had performed and thrilled with their overall Olympic experience.

"We're really stoked with how we went," Maley said.

"We put it all on the line and just attacked the course - we weren't defensive and it was a tough course, the whole way down. "I don't regret what we tried to do andthe effort we put in at all.

"It's been an amazing experience. The whole race - everyone has lifted. The atmoshpere here is incedible,We just wanted to buy into the whole Olympic experience, being part of the Australian Team adn representing the country and all the support we have got from everyone back home is just incredible and I think we definitely rose to another level - but so did everyone else!"

And of Rio 2016? For 24-year-old West Australian Jeffery, there's really no question

“I’m greedy!” Jeffery said. “I want to go again. When I crosseed the line - I was like - I want to go again!"

"For me, I just want to experience this moment," Maley added. "I'll start thinking about that soon."

Alice Wheeler in London
olympics.com.au