CANOE/KAYAK: Robin Jeffery has kept his Rio dream alive after winning the second Olympic trial at the Oceania Championships in Penrith on Friday.
Crucially, his fifth place result in the heats secured Australia the C1 boat quota for Rio after the nominated athletes from New Zealand and Fiji failed to advance to Saturday’s semi-final.
Jeffery recorded a clean run of 95.96 to finish 2.85 seconds behind Franz Anton of Germany.
First Olympic trial winner Ian Borrows finished second amongst the Australian paddlers ahead of Kynan Maley (21st), Ethan Hodson (24th) and Christian Fabris (30th).
Jeffery was pleased with the way he handled the pressure today.
“That is part of the process, that is why we have it because when we get to the Olympics there is going to be a lot of pressure so this is a really good test and I was really stoked with the way that I dealt with it today,” Jeffery said.
“I stayed in the moment, I was able to go through all of my processes and luckily I came through with the result.”
The London Olympian admitted to having plenty of pre-race nerves this morning.
“I could feel my heart beat through my chest a little bit more than usual, definitely a lot more than our full length runs here on a Saturday morning but it was good, I knew I was alive and ready to get into it so I just had to control that and then get back into that moment.”
The victory for Jeffery gives him an advantage alongside Borrows going into Saturday’s semi-finals and finals which will determine who will join Jessica Fox is being nominated to the Australian Olympic Committee.
“It is going to be who is going to deal with that pressure the best so I am sure it is going to be another challenging course, we had a very challenging heats run today which was really exciting and good for the people watching so hopefully we get another one of those tomorrow and I can deliver,” Jeffery said.
Only the top ten in tomorrow’s semi-final will advance to the final. The semi-finals are scheduled to commence at 9:15 am EST.
AUSTRALIAN CANOEING
