Grant cruises through to Sunday's K1W semi final ICF Slalom World Cup 2 Pau, France Photograph:Sportscene |
Delfour wins his maiden world cup medal Maley shows strong signs ahead of London, while four Aussies advance to Sunday’s K1W and C2M semi finals.
23 year old NSWIS paddler Lucien Delfour has won his first ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup medal in Pau, France overnight after finishing third in the men’s K1 final.
Delfour qualified 7th fastest for the final after finishing 33rd in Friday’s semi-final and despite getting off to a poor start in the final, Delfour recovered, navigating the 25 gate course in impressive fashion.
“I had a bad start and I didn’t think I would make it, so I didn’t give up and it paid off,” said Delfour.
The final was won by Frenchman Etienne Daille who went one better than his silver a week ago in Cardiff, Wales to claim the win in a time of 100.17, 1.09 seconds ahead of Czech paddler Jan Vondra, with Delfour 3.94 seconds adrift in third.
Fellow Australian’s Warwick Draper and Will Forsythe failed to reach the final after finishing 26th and 33rd respectively in the semi finals.
30 year old Western Australian Kynan Maley signalled his intentions ahead of London with an impressive 10th place finish in the men’s C1 final, his best ever World Cup result.
In a dominant days racing from the French paddlers, Tony Estanguet used all his local knowledge, smashing the field by more than seven seconds to claim the men’s C1 victory ahead of Poland’s Grzegorz Kiljanek and Alexander Slafkovsky of Slovakia.
22 year old NSWIS paddler Ian Borrows narrowly improved on his 27th finish at the first World Cup to finish 23rd in the semi finals.
Ros Lawrence appeared to win back to back World Cup C1 gold medals, before the judges handed the 22 year old a 50 second missed gate penalty, handing the controversial win to local favourite Caroline Loir.
The Frenchwomen finished 2.12 seconds ahead of Czech paddler Katerina Hoskova, with Claire Jacquet of France in third, with Lawrence relegated to sixth.
London bound ace Jessica Fox missed the women’s C1 semi final to attend an MRI scan after sustaining a back injury bad was able to return for the afternoon’s K1 heats.
Despite two gate touches on her first run, Fox’s time of 104.86 saw her finish 23rd, joining Victoria’s Sarah Grant in Sunday’s semi final after the Melbourne paddler produced a clean run to finish 15th, with the top 30 advancing through to the semis.
Lawrence sisters Ros and Kate missed out on a semi-final berth finishing in 32nd and 46th respectively.
The final event of the day saw WAIS duo Kynan Maley and Robin Jeffery cruise through to Sunday’s C2 semi final after finishing 11th in the heat overnight.
Action will commence on Sunday from 5:30pm AUS EST for the women’s K1 semi final featuring Grant and Fox.
Sunday Schedule
17:30–19:15 - Semi Finals - K1 Women & C2 Men
20:02–20:57 - Finals - K1 Women & C2 Men
21:02–21:22 - Medal Ceremony – K1 Women & C2 Men
(All times AUS EST, 8 Hrs ahead of Pau, France).
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