CANOE/KAYAK - SLALOM: Australian athletes performed well in the early stages of the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships giving plenty of medal hopes ahead of the medal rounds.
Delfour advances to K1M Worlds final - Day 2 Wrap
Australia is on a verge of something special after Lucien Delfour recorded the fastest K1M semifinal run at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships at Deep Creek, USA overnight.
The 25 year old produced a clean run of 100.82 to edge World Cup champion Sebastian Schubert of Germany by 0.19 seconds.
“It was a nice clean run. Nothing special but I think I went fast pretty much everywhere. There were no mess ups and that was exactly what I wanted,” Delfour said.
Heading into this year’s World Championships Delfour has spent the past fortnight training at the venue.
Leading into the event he stated he didn’t like the course, and despite a strong performance in the semifinal he still hasn’t changed his mind.
“Nope I still hate it and I don’t think that is going to change but I think I understand how it works now,” he said.
Joining Delfour and Schubert in the final will be French trio Boris Neveu, Mathieu Biazizzo and Sebastian Combot, Mateusz Polaczyk of Poland, Argentinian Thomas Bersinger, Italian Giovanni De Gennaro, Russian Pavel Eigel and American Fabien Lefevre.
Despite a seamlessly faultless semifinal performance, Delfour is confident of further improvement in Saturday’s final.
“There were a few places where I could have saved a bit of time but the thing is today it is a little bit windy so I didn’t want to take too many risks,” he said.
The final itself looks to be one of the most open in years with several big names missing out.
They include reigning world champion Vavrinec Hradilek and fellow Czech Jiri Prskavec, world number two Fabian Doerfler of Germany and U23 world champion Michal Smolen of the USA.
Unfortunately Delfour’s Australian teammates William Forsythe and Jaxon Merritt were unable to join him in the final finishing 33rd and 38th respectively.
The K1M final will be raced at 3am AEST on Sunday morning.
Earlier Sarah Grant (12th), Jessica Fox (16th) and Rosalyn Lawrence (23rd) all secured themselves a place in Sunday’s K1W semifinal.
Grant was the pick of the Australian trio recording the 12th fastest run of 114.96 to finish 3.51 seconds behind Spanish paddler Maialen Chourraut.
The London Olympic bronze medalist executed a clean run of 111.45 to edge Frenchwoman Emilie Fer and German Melanie Pfeifer by less than a second.
The C2M heat was also contested with the Australian pairing of Robin Jeffery and Ethan Hodson finishing 31st.
Despite improving on their second run, 10 seconds in penalties for five gate touches cost them dearly, relegating them outside the top 20.
They finished 22.27 seconds behind French pair Pierre Labarelle and Nicolas Peschier who recorded the fastest heat run of 108.67 clean.
Racing continues tonight from 11pm AEST (9am local) with C1M and C1W semifinals and finals to be contested first followed by the K1M final.
World Champs underway in Deep Creek
CANOE/KAYAK - SLALOM: Seven Australian athletes have advanced to the semifinals after an entertaining opening day of racing at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships in Deep Creek, USA.
The C1M, C1W and K1M heats were contested overnight and as promised the Deep Creek course didn’t disappoint.
Jessica Fox got her C1W title defense off to a perfect start by recording the fastest first run before sitting out her second to finish second in 126.72.
Czech World Cup champion Katerina Hoskova overtook Fox following the second runs after posting a time of 124.12.
Fellow Australians Rosalyn Lawrence and Alison Borrows also comfortably advanced to the semifinals in 8th and 11th respectively.
“I was a little bit messy in some places, I had a touch early on but managed to build the run. The top section was okay, the middle section I lost my edge a little bit and had to go for a plan B spin but it put me in the lead for the first run so it is a good start,” Fox said.
“I will look to build on that throughout the racing.”
Fellow NSWIS paddler Ian Borrows will also feature in the semifinals after he recorded the 21st fastest C1M heat run of 108.85.
Borrows finished 7.87 seconds behind Slovakian Alexander Slafkovsky who executed a clean run of 100.98 to top the time-sheet heading into Saturday’s semifinal.
Borrows described his first run as ‘pretty average’ after three touches and a roll.
He was happy with his improvement the second time around.
“I had a slight mistake with a touch in the middle but managed to clean up the roll and hopefully it gets me through and we can see what we can do on Friday,” Borrows said.
Victorian Christian Fabris narrowly missed out on a place in the semifinals by 0.26 seconds in the dreaded 31st position.
It is a second consecutive international event that the 30 year old has missed out on reaching the semifinals by one spot.
Despite the disappointment Fabris was happy to be racing in Deep Creek after injury curtailed his year in 2013.
“It feels awesome. I was pretty envious of my teammates last year watching them race and I have been looking forward to getting out there and have a really good time out on the water,” Fabris said.
Australia’s trio of K1M, Lucien Delfour (12th), Jaxon Merritt (23rd) and Will Forsythe (28th) all secured a safe passage through to the semifinals on Friday.
Merritt found the 24 gate course a tough challenge.
“It is a really physical and technical course, particularly the bottom when you are really blowing hard from the run,” Merritt said.
Delfour was the pick of the Australian men recording a time of 100.21 which included a touch on the final gate.
He finished 3.64 seconds behind Frenchman Boris Neveu who recorded a clean run of 96.57 to edge Czech paddler Jiri Prskavec by 0.15 seconds.
Racing continues from 11pm AEST tonight (9am local time) with the K1W and C2M heats up first.
Friday Schedule (AEST):
11:00pm – K1W Heat 1st run (Jess Fox, Sarah Grant, Ros Lawrence)
12:00am – C2M Heat 1st run (Robin Jeffery/Ethan Hodson)
12:50am – K1W Heat 2nd run (Jess Fox, Sarah Grant, Ros Lawrence)
1:50am – C2M Heat 2nd run (Robin Jeffery/Ethan Hodson)
6:30am – K1M Semifinals (Lucien Delfour/Jaxon Merritt/Will Forsythe)
Australian Canoeing
