Canoe slalom paddlers opened the season 2019 with international competition Australian Open which every year attracts many competitors who are preparing for the new season at the Olympic course in Penrith. Seven medals went to European paddlers, including three gold medals.
It was a great racing weekend for British paddles, winning in men’s K1 and C1 events. Olympic Champion Joseph Clarke lead already after the semi-final run, and repeated strong performance in the decisive run of the day, finishing the race with a tight advantage of six hundredths of a second in front of Australian representative Lucien Delfour. Sebastian Schubert from Germany was third.
In men’s canoe final David Florence (Great Britain) produced the best run to finish the competition in front Martin Thomas (France) and Raffaello Ivaldi (Italy).
Germany celebrated two medals in women’s kayak final thanks to the winner Ricarda Funk and third placed Jasmin Schornberg. Jessica Fox (Australia) was second in this final.
Fox picked up gold medal in women’s canoe final, while Ana Satila (Brazil) and Noemie Fox (Australia) finished the race in second and third place. The best European paddler in this final was Austrian Viktoria Wolffhardt who was fourth.
Part of the 2019 Sydney International Whitewater Festival was not only canoe slalom competition, but also whitewater sprint canoeing race and freestyle canoeing competition. In freestyle competition there were no European finalists, while in whitewater sprint reigning European champion in this discipline Vid Debeljak from Slovenia won in men’s K1 in front of two Australian paddlers - Alexander and Robert McIntyre.
The second part of the Whitewater Festitval comes next weekend with Oceania Championships, again with canoe slalom, whitewater sprint races and canoe freestyle competition.
Photo: JGR Images, Paddle Australia Facebook Page
18.2.2019
