Robin Jeffery 2013 Australian Open Photograph:Sportscene |
The fight for senior and U23 National slalom selection has been decided following an action packed final day of racing down the fast and challenging rapids at Bradys Lake in the heart of Tasmania.
Nestled amongst some of Australia’s most beautiful landscapes Bradys was a fitting conclusion for the selection showdown with Rosalyn Lawrence, Robin Jeffery, Lucien Delfour and Jessica Fox once again the victors in a repeat of yesterday’s selection 3 results.
Jeffery continued his dominance and a clean sweep of the men’s C1 selection events with victory at Bradys today.
The 25 year old produced a fast and clean final run winning in 99.06, 0.98 seconds ahead of Melbourne’s Christian Fabris with New South Welshman Ian Borrows third 3.53 seconds behind Jeffery’s winning time.
For Fabris it made it consecutive second place C1 finishes and assured him a place on this year’s senior team where he is looking to crack the top ten for the first time.
Fabris was happy with his results this weekend.
“It is great down here. I love getting down here on the fast water, it is steep, fast flowing, tough and it is nice to come back after a less than ideal start to selection last week and put out some solid runs,†said Fabris.
“Robbie (Jeffery) put out some excellent runs both yesterday and today and I wasn’t too far off them and made a bit of a mistake today up the top but I thought all in all it was a good weekend of racing.â€
Delfour continued his red hot form winning the men’s K1 for the second day straight, booking his seat on a flight to the World Cups in June.
The NSWIS star was happy with his performance.
“I had a good first run but it could have been faster but I got a touch and I thought the second run was a bit faster and clean, so it was good.â€
Delfour won in 93.29, 0.82 seconds ahead of Melbourne’s Jaxon Merritt, with Hobart 17 year old Daniel Watkins paddling beyond his years rounding out the podium 5.33 seconds adrift of Delfour’s winning time.
Merritt was happy with a podium finish, “Yeah pretty happy, always want to do a bit better but it is a good enough result for me to be on the podium so pretty happy.â€
After losing his preferred paddle on Saturday after in snapped through the shallow waters in the middle section of the course, Watkins had to compete with his spare paddle but was really happy with his third place finish.
“I was really happy, I had a good run and didn’t make too many mistakes, I was pretty happy backing up after some bad runs yesterday.â€
The Derwent Canoe club paddler enjoys competing on his home course.
“It is really fun competing at home because I have just spent so much more time on this course; it is by far my favourite course.â€
Ros Lawrence backed up her K1 success on Saturday with victory in the women’s K1 on Sunday capping off an excellent weekend for the NSWIS gun.
“I was really happy with my runs in K1 so regardless of the result it was a good weekend.â€
Lawrence found the course a bit easier than yesterday and was able to race the fast race lines winning in a time of 102.77, 1.94 seconds ahead of Victoria’s Sarah Grant with a gate touch costing the Melbourne paddler victory today. U23 paddler Alison Borrows finished in third.
In the final event of the day Jessica Fox bounced back from a disappointing fifth place finish in the women’s K1 final to win the womens C1 final in dominant fashion.
Fox won in 107.07, 8.97 seconds ahead of Borrows, with Lawrence just over two seconds further adrift.
Stay tuned to the Australian Canoeing website – www.canoe.org.au with Official Senior and U23 Announcements to be published shortly.
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