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Junior Champion Wary Of Competition

 

Junior Champion Wary Of Competition

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AOC
Junior Champion Wary Of Competition

She may be a double junior world champion, but the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) poses a great unknown for Australian canoeist Jessica Fox.

She may be a double junior world champion, but the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) poses a great unknown for Australian canoeist Jessica Fox.

The reason: Her favoured slalom event is usually held on a river course, where paddlers attempt to navigate through gates while battling whitewater rapids and currents. But YOG paddlers have to manoeuvre around obstacles on a flatwater course at Marina Reservoir.

'It's a new race format and I'm not really sure what to expect,' the 16-year-old said in a telephone interview from Italy. She is travelling to Slovenia for a training camp this week.

In addition, paddlers in the slalom event will compete head to head, as opposed to the norm of taking turns.

'It becomes a lot more competitive as you know what the other person is doing and she's right next to you,' Jessica said. 'Hopefully I can use that to motivate myself.'

Her mother and coach, Myriam Fox added that the new race format requires more strength, something Jessica has not yet developed.

'Jess is fast on whitewater, as she uses the river's currents,' Myriam explained. 'On flatwater it might be a different story, as some girls might be quicker than her.

'You need to be really strong, and I'm not sure she is the strongest. She has not started work in the gym, working mostly on her technique.'

Myriam, 48 and Australia's canoeing head coach, knows what she is talking about. The French slalom canoeist has two world championships and an Olympic bronze medal to prove her worth.

And Jessica's father, Richard, 50, won five world championships while representing Britain. He is the national performance director at Australian Canoeing.

Besides Jessica, they have another daughter, 13-year-old Noemie, who is just starting to paddle.

Ironically, her parents' love for canoeing and success in the sport initially turned Jessica off.

'In the beginning, she used to say, 'it's your sport, it's not my sport',' Myriam recalled.

But Jessica changed her mind after breaking her arm while performing gymnastics. She then took up paddling as a form of physiotherapy.

Since starting out in 2005, she has now made the sport her own.

Last year, the Australian Institute of Sport and Australian Canoeing named her Junior Athlete of the Year after she struck gold in her first international at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.

She also finished first at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup in Spain in June, and became the first junior to win both the single canoe (C1) and single kayak (K1) classes at the ICF Canoe Slalom Junior World Championships in France the following month.

The C1 women's event was introduced for the first time this year.

Sporting success aside, Myriam also wants her daughter to excel in the classroom. As it is, the Blaxland High School student has been missing lessons because of competition and training.

She has not been home since leaving for Europe on June 9. All her energies are now focused on the YOG, which will give her a gauge of what it is like to represent Australia in the Summer Olympics, her ultimate ambition.

She said: 'I approach each competition with the same mentality, that I really want to be there and I really want to do my best.

'I don't think of the result. I just do my best and see where that places me.'

Royston Sim
SYOGOC

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