CANOE/KAYAK - SLALOM: The Sydney International Whitewater Festival – Oceania Open Championships wrapped up at Penrith Whitewater Festival on Sunday with Australia’s greatest individual slalom paddler of all time, Jessica Fox, taking home the win in the women’s C1.

Fellow Australian Rosalyn Lawrence (NSW) joined her on the podium in second. Australians Tim Anderson (NSW) and Lucien Delfour (NSW) finished seventh and eighth respectively in the men’s K1 final.

The gold medal and Oceania Champion title continues Fox’ unbeaten run in the boat class she won five World Cups, the overall World Cup as well as World Championships gold in last year.

The world number one paddler showed her class finishing the challenging course and conditions in a time of 121.71 seconds and +6.48 seconds ahead of second placed teammate Ros Lawrence with both paddlers recording four seconds penalties. France’s 2018 World Championships team bronze medallist and former gold medallist at the Junior World Championships in Penrith in 2014, Lucie Prioux, finished third (+11.93).

“That was closer to a bang than yesterday. I’m quite pleased with that, to finish off with a win obviously is always awesome,” Fox said in reference to Saturday’s K1 final that saw her drop from a winning time into eighth place following 50 seconds penalty after missing a gate and finishing +47.43 behind winner and World #2 Ricarda Funk (GER).

“I’m happy but it was really hard. That course was long, it was windy, it was really physical and I had to really dig deep because I felt quite flat before starting.

"There were a couple of mistakes, I had two touches on the top and it definitely wasn’t perfect. I was a little bit surprised to see the number one next to my name, because obviously a few mistakes can cost you a lot, so I gave it everything out there,” Fox said of her C1 final run.

The gold medal wrapped up a successful two-weekend 2019 Sydney International Whitewater Festival for Fox, who also won the women’s C1 at last weekend’s Australian Open, and her 8th-place finish in Saturday's K1 still secured Fox the Oceania Championship title as the only Oceania paddler who progressed through to the women’s K1 final.

Adding another silver medal to her medal tally from last weekend’s women’s K1, the world-class Whitewater event made for a successful return to international competition following Fox’s historic season last year when she wrote canoeing history and became the most successful individual canoe slalom paddler of all time.

“It’s always nice to start the year on our home course and to have some good results here with all of the internationals that are out, it’s always great, because it’s like a world cup competition. Everyone’s out here always giving their best,” Fox added about the world class field contesting the event.

Fellow Australian and former C1 World Champion Ros Lawrence added a silver medal to Australia’s medal tally, a result she was thrilled about.

“My feelings are all over the place and I’m happy to finish on a high. There were three people up after me so I knew I was with a good medal chance when I went into first crossing the finish line,” Lawrence said, after posting the fastest time when she was the seventh paddler coming down the course, but was overtaken by Fox, who started last in the final following her semi-final win.

Lawrence finished 16th in the women's K1 the previous day and Kate Eckhardt (TAS) finished 23rd, with Eckhardt taking out the Oceania title win in the U23 age group. 

Eckhardt and Noemie Fox (NSW), who won a bronze medal at last weekend’s Australian Open, missed out of the women’s C1 final on Sunday after finishing 12th and 27th respectively in the semi-final.

The men’s K1 was won by American Michal Smolen in 99.35 seconds and +0.61 seconds ahead of Jakub Grigar (SVK) in second. Boris Neveu (FRA) finished third (+1.33).

 

Tim Anderson and Rio Olympian and 2018 World Championships silver medallist Lucien Delfour were the two Australians who made the top-ten final in a world-class and challenging semi-final earlier in the day that saw 16 out of 40 paddlers missing gates, including current World Champion Hannes Aigner (GER) and World #1 Vit Prindis (CZE).

Tasmanian Dan Watkins was the third Australian to make it through to Sunday’s semi-final, but a challenging run with eight seconds penalties saw him miss out of the final in 20th.

Paddle Australia