CANOE/KAYAK: World champion Jessica Fox is safely through to the semifinals of the women’s C1 at the Canoe Slalom World Championships in London.
Fellow Australian’s Ros Lawrence and Ali Borrows are also through to Sunday’s semifinals.
There was good news also in the men’s C1, with Western Australia’s Robin Jeffery qualifying straight through to this weekend’s semifinals.
Jeffery qualified in ninth position.
Unlike yesterday’s K1, all three Australian women paddlers needed just the one run to qualify for the next round of the C1.
Fox, who is aiming for a third consecutive C1 title, said she felt much more relaxed today.
“Safely through, I can breathe a sigh of relief,” she said.
“I felt good on the water today, I was really happy with that run. It was smooth and solid.
“Finishing third in the heat is a good start, I progress to the semi and can relax today and tomorrow before attacking the K1 on Saturday.”
Fox finished with a time of 102.57 with no penalties, 1.12 seconds behind hometown favourite, Kimberley Woods, who also picked up a two second penalty.
Robin Jeffery recently made the tough decision to quit the C2 discipline so he could just focus on the C1, and said he felt relieved after finishing ninth in qualifying.
“I was really nervous on the start,” Jeffery said.
“The C2 gave me a lot of good lessons, and I learned a lot from it. But now that I’m just doing the C1, I have a lot more free time and clear thoughts.
“I’m a lot better paddler. I’ve learned a lot over the past two years, my techniques improved, but it’s also the way I build into a race. That’s really improved.”
Lawrence said she channeled her disappointment from Wednesday’s K1 into her C1 run, where she qualified in eighth position.
“I’m pretty angry about my K1, so I’ll use that to my advantage,” she said.
“I’ve definitely got more improvement to come. I’d like to be a bit smoother in my semi and my final.”
Borrows was also happy to qualify 13th, and put her K1 disappointment behind her.
“I just wanted to get back out there and have a good run, be better,” she said.
“I still felt pretty nervous. I’ve been doing C1 for quite a while, so I’m more used to that. This is quite a simple course, I think with a trickier course I’ll be right up there.”
2012 Olympian, Kynan Maley and Jeffery’s former C2 partner, Ethan Hodson, both missed out on making the semi-finals of the C1.
Hodson said he could have taken more risks on his second run.
“I was a little bit conservative in the middle section,” he said.
“It just didn’t quite come together today, but hopefully it will when it really matters.”
Results
C1M First runsC1M Second runs
The men’s K1 qualification runs will be held on Friday from 7:30pm AEST.
World Cup series runner-up Lucien Delfour will be joined by Victorian Jaxon Merritt and Tasmanian Daniel Watkins.
The top 40 across the two qualification runs will advance to the semifinals.
Australia will be aiming to finish inside the top 15 nations to secure an Olympic quota.
