Races

C1 Men and K1 Women Finals on Oceania Open

By CSNFebruary 20, 2010

Sydney (ENS) – Day two was dedicated to the Men’s Canoe C1 Single and Women’s K1 Kayak Single events semifinals and finals. Paddlers in both the Men’s Canoe C1 Single and Women’s K1 Kayak Single semifinals had only one run to stake their claim for a place in the finals.

In semifinals Slovakia’s European silver medallist Alexander Slafkovsky – who led all paddlers at the end of Day 1 of the Men’s C1 Canoe Singles – has bowed out of the competition when he failed to record one of the top ten quickest times in Saturday morning’s semifinal run.
“It was a bad run, really bad. I did an eskimo roll before the first gate and then the whole run was not good,” Slafkovsky said after the run. Slafkovsky finished 17 seconds behind first placed teammate Matej Benus, with Britons David Florence and Mark Proctor in second and third places.

Slovakian Matej Benus clocked a semifinal time 103.67 and he said that he can still improve on that time. “I was just thinking about the quickest way to get around every gate,” Benus said about his semifinal run.

Four Australian women have qualified for the final of the Women’s K1 slalom event at the 2010 Oceania Canoe/Kayak Open here on Saturday. Jessica Fox was the pick of the Aussies, qualifying third fastest overall, behind Jana Dukatova of Slovakia and Elizabeth Neave of Great Britain.

France’s Edern Le Ruyet caused a major boilover when he won the Men’s C1 slalom event at the 2010 Oceania Canoe/Kayak Open at the Penrith WhiteWater Stadium here Saturday.
The unheralded Le Ruyet, who went into the final as sixth fastest qualifier after the semifinal, had a clean run in the final and won with a time of 105.28, to beat Vitezslav Gebas of Czech Republic and Takuya Haneda of Japan.

Le Ruyet and his coach had originally debated whether to remain for the Oceania competition, and were convinced by Australian officials to stay and compete. “I feel really good, I enjoyed myself on the run. I liked the course design. I’m very happy to win because I have been training here since September and I go home in three days so it’s a good finish for me,” he said.

Gebas was a similarly unexpected silver medallist, after coming off the back of a 47th place in the World Cup circuit last year. “The course was difficult, challenging and exactly the sort that I like. I’ve spent three weeks in Australia training and it’s a great place to come and improve your paddling,” he said.

Japan’s Takuya Haneda said he was not entirely happy with the bronze. “I had hoped to win this race. I thought I had a big chance to win but there were many good paddlers and I touched some gates. I lost too much time catching waves and stopping.”

The big surprise was the disappointing 10th place of Olympic silver medallist David Florence of Great Britain. He hit the 6th gate and was judged to have missed it completely, and suffered a 50 second penalty, which wrecked his medal chances.

Austrian World Cup silver medallist Corinna Kuhnle claimed the gold medal at the 2010 Oceania Canoe/Kayak Open in the Women’s K1 slalom in Penrith here Saturday, throwing down the challenge to her compatriots about to compete in the skiing slalom events at the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver

“I’m excited to win this race,” Kunhle said.

Kuhnle set an astounding pace, with a time of 107.35, more than two seconds faster than anyone else in the 10-woman field, but only grabbed gold by just over a second with a corrected time of 111.35 after she incurred four penalty seconds for hitting two gates in her run.

Kuhnle was delighted with her win. “I’m excited to win this race,” she said. “I will stay here until the 1st of April and then I will go home for the Austrian National Selections at the end of April. I am starting to get prepared for the European Championships in June, I would like to see a really good result there, like a medal.”

Silver went to Czech Republic’s Katerina Kudejova, in 112.86, with Australia’s Sarah Grant third in 112.92. Kudejova, the bronze medallist at the World Junior Championships in 2008, and Grant, the Australian silver medallist in 2010 and champion in 2009, both had clean rounds.

Katerina Kudejova said her clean run was unexpected. ”I’m delighted with my race as I didn’t really expect such a clean run,” she said.

Australia’s Sarah Grant said she had followed her pre-race plan. “I flew up the top bit which is where I think I gained good time but I tried to carry on, not think how I’d done, and still keep paddling as well as I could,” she said.

New Zealand had a disappointing second day of the Oceania Open, with all four competitors failing to qualifying for the final of their respective disciplines.

Shaun Travers and Shaun Higgins finished 25th and 30th in the men’s C1 semifinal while Luuka Jones and Louise Jull were 21st and 23rd in the women’s K1 semifinal.
“I didn’t do as well as I should have today but overall the weekend has not been bad and there is a lot I can learn from competing with athletes like these,” said Jull.

On Sunday we will see the Men’s C2, Men’s K1 and Women’s C1 semifinals and finals.

Competition Results

C1M
1. Le Ruyet Edern	FRA	105,28	0
2. Gebas Vitezslav	CZE	107,50	2
3. Haneda Takuya	JPN	108,46	0
K1W
1. Kuhnle Corina	AUT	111,35	4
2. Kudejova Katerina	CZE	112,86	0
3. Grant Sarah	AUS	112,92	0