Jessica Fox |
The final day of the ICF Slalom World Cup 2 event in Pau, France has concluded with 18 year old kayaker Jessica Fox finishing 8th in the women's K1 final, while Western Australian duo Kynan Maley and Robin Jeffery have finished 16th in the men's C2 event.
London bound trio Jessica Fox, Kynan Maley and Robin Jeffery continued their preparations for this year’s Olympic Games, showing some encouraging signs on the final day of the ICF World Cup 2 in Pau, France.
Fox started the day in impressive fashion cruising into the women’s K1 final after finishing 5th in her semi final, but a crucial error in the middle section of the course proved costly for the 18 year old, who like many of her fellow competitorsstruggled down the fast flowing Pau rapids to finish 8th in the final.
“In the semi final I didn’t have a great run, my top was a bit slow but I had a good bottom section so it was enough to get me through and I was really hoping to improve on that,” said Fox.
“(In the final) my top section was a bit better, but I really stuffed up one of the main moves in the middle which was a down to an up, so I lost a lot of time there, then in the rest I was a bit low in the last two ups so it wasn’t great.”
The Final was won by Spanish paddler Maialen Chourraut in 108.34, 1.86 seconds ahead of Carole Bouzidi, with Great Britain’s Elizabeth Neave taking home the Bronze. Earlier in the day Victoria’s Sarah Grant finished 22nd in the semi finals.
Fox withdrew from the women’s C1 event on Saturday to have an MRI scan on her back and to focus on the K1 event.
“I was definitely disappointed to withdrawn from the C1, but I think it was for the best because I did have a sore back and I thought that I wasn’t going to gain anything from racing, it was only going to make it worse and then I would be able to race the K1.”
“I was able to focus more on the K1 and I guess that is what it is going to be like for the Olympics and I won’t have the C1 to practice the course on before the K1 so in a way that was a good experience as well.”
Western Australian duo Kynan Maley and Robin Jeffery missed out on a men’s C2 finals berth after finishing 16th in their semi final, more than 13 seconds off the winning time.
The French continued their dominant weekend with Pierre Labarelle and Nicolas Peschier combining to win the gold in a time of 109.38, 2.37 seconds ahead of Slovakian cousins, Peter and Ladislav Skantar, China pair Minghai Hu and Junrong Shu narrowly behind in third.
The team will depart Seu tonight, headed for La Seu d’Urgell, Spain to prepare for the third and final World Cup prior to London, which commences on Friday 22nd June.
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