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British canoe slalom team dominated at their home 2012 Olympic course in Lee Valley, just outside London. They concluded the 2023 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with eight medals in total, five of them were gold, two silver and one bronze. France won five medals in Lee Valley (one gold and four silver medals), while Czechia, Slovenia and Australia each won three medals at this World Championships. Italy and Poland left the championships with two medals each (both won two bronze medals), Slovakia and Spain have won a silver medal, while Switzerland celebrated bronze medal in men’s kayak cross event. Morocco also found itself on the medals table with the historic first World Championships medal in canoe slalom.

 

30-year-old Joseph Clarke dominated at the home canoe slalom World Championships, winning gold medals both in men’s kayak final and in men’s kayak cross event. “It’s been a long time coming, I’ve been there and thereabouts so many times, but penalties have always taken that medal away from me, so to come here, do two clean and very fast runs today at home makes it that little bit more special, the icing on the cake, and here we are – loving it,” Clarke said after his win in an exciting men’s kayak final, where he won almost two seconds ahead of Tokyo Olympic Champion Jiri Prskavec (CZE) and the biggest surprise of the championships Mathis Soudi, who won the historic medal for Morocco.

 

Clarke again stood on the highest podium position only 24 hours later, when he came out as a winner in a kayak cross duel with France’s Boris Neveu, who took silver medal. Martin Dougoud (SUI) won bronze medal in the last event of the championships.

 

Mallory Franklin was crowned World Champion in women’s canoe final, six years after her first World crown. She’s been among the best for the past decade, only missing the podium twice in the last ten years. In addition to her two gold medals, she also won four silver medals at World Championships.

 

“It’s amazing to be able to do it at home and at Lee Valley, it’s my favourite course in the world and in front of the crowd, it’s pretty amazing. I’ve generally not performed amazingly well at worlds since 2017, although I’ve medalled, so that sounds bad, but I’ve not been able to put down that performance. There are some really good girls in C1 now, and if you look at the standard of some of those runs that won the worlds over the years, there’s been some amazing stuff gone down,” said Franklin.

 

For even bigger satisfaction of the local crowd, Kimberley Woods took silver medal, while Australia’s Olympic champion Jessica Fox finished third.

 

The British anthem also played in honour of Kimberley Woods, who was the best on the last day of the championships in women’s kayak cross final, where she crossed the line ahead of Camille Prigent (FRA) and Eva Tercelj (SLO).

 

Slovenia’s Benjamin Savšek, like Franklin in women’s canoe, waited for six years to stand on the highest podium position at World Championships once more. In the mean time he became Olympic Champion and won three European Champion titles. Nicolas Gestin (FRA) took silver medal in men’s canoe final and Italian Paolo Ceccon won bronze medal.

 

In women’s kayak final the win went to Australia thanks to Jessica Fox. Eliska Minatalova was second and won the only medal for Slovakia at this World Championships, while Klaudia Zwolinska (POL) added bronze World Championships medal to her collection. It was an exceptional season for Zwolinska, who had excellent performances at European Games this year, where she won two silver medals in Krakow.

 

The championships opened on Tuesday with team events. Here, Great Britain took the win in women’s canoe event thanks to Mallory Franklin, Kimberley Woods and Ellis Miller, who were joined on the podium by teams from Czechia and Slovenia. This was the first medal for Slovenia in women’s canoe at senior World Championships in history. Jiri Prskavec, Vit Prindis and Jakub Krejci (CZE) were unbeatable in men’s kayak team event, France was second and Poland third. In men’s canoe team final France (Nicolas Gestin, Jules Bernardet, Lucas Roisin) took the gold medal ahead of representatives of Great Britain and Italy. Australia won in women’s kayak team event ahead of Spain and Great Britain.

 

The next Canoe Slalom World Championships will be organised in 2025 in Australia.