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The first gold medals in kayak cross at the Olympic Games went to hands of Australian Noemie Fox and New Zealand’s Finn Butcher, while the remaining four medals stayed in Europe.

 

In women’s event Angele Hug won silver medal at the home course in France, while Kimberley Woods won bronze medal, her second medal of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games following the success in kayak.

 

“It’s a lot of happiness and I am really grateful to all the French people that were screaming for me. For my first Olympics, it was hard to stay focused on the goal and not on the medal. Finally, I succeeded so I’m really happy,” said Hug.

 

Woods said, “It’s a little bit bittersweet as I tried to go for that gold, but I am really happy to come away from here as a double Olympic medallist.”

 

In men’s kayak cross final Butcher lead from the start winning gold ahead of Joe Clarke (GBR), reigning World Champion in this discipline, and Germany’s Noah Hegge.

 

Clarke was happy to win a medal just minutes after his teammate, “We are both absolutely over the moon. Two medals in five minutes for Team GB doesn’t get much better than that. You can control the race from the front, you don’t want to be chasing it and do things at the last minute. I try to control the rounds and had done an extremely good job at that but unfortunately Noah Hegge came into my lane when we landed and I lost those all-important first three strokes and that allowed Finn to get ahead and then I was in the backseat position, trying to chase him down all the way. I had to settle for silver in the end but silver for me is like a win today and I am very proud of that.”

 

For Hegge, this bronze medal is the first individual medal at major international championships, “I’m really happy. This is the first time I have participated in the Olympic Games. It was a difficult final, but I am very happy with the performance I showed. It was great to compete against these great athletes and I’m absolutely thrilled to take home a medal.”