Ryan Westley soared to a glittering silver on Sydney waters as he clinched a career third men’s C1 world medal.
The 32-year-old had reached the final with a 10th place run in the semis, letting loose when it counted to reach the individual world podium for the first time in seven years.
France’s Nicolas Gestin took the title in a time of 97.13s, with the Brit behind by 0.90s for silver and Australia’s Kaylen Bassett wrapping up the podium with bronze.
The only British athlete to reach the men’s final, Westley had to wait to find out his fate with the rest of the field going down the course after him.
But after an especially speedy back half to the course, the paddler held on and cemented his spot on the podium in emphatic fashion.
“Everything went really well,” he said. “Unfortunately, there was one other guy on the start line who was a bit better than me but there’s not much I can do about that.
“I really enjoyed my final run. I took a little bit of time at the top but once that happened, I felt really locked in.
“I really enjoyed racing on this course that they set, I felt like it suited me well. I enjoyed the staggers.
“I just really enjoy racing the finals, it feels like the hand break comes off and you can just sort of go for it.”
The course, set by Thomas Schmidt, Olympic champion on this venue 25 years ago, set a staunch challenge to those competing.
A swinging stagger out of the first pool before landing on a tricky wave move put the racers and their balance under pressure from the start.
Athletes had a moment of respite under the bridge before entering the main wave section: a high cross on the waves peak and bouncing off the eddy into a monstrous eight gate downstream section.
The sting in the tail, a left to right feature, against the grain of the flow demanded a fine balance of skill, composure and power before accelerating to the finish.
But Westley took on the challenge and silver from Sydney 2025 now adds to the same colour from Rio 2018 and a bronze from London 2015.
“I’ve got now three world championship finals and three world championship medals,” he said.
“I think I would like a few more finals to be honest, but I’m quite happy with that record.”
It marked a second medal of these championships for Westley, who had already soared to C1 team silver alongside his teammates Adam Burgess and Luc Royle.
Burgess narrowly missed out on securing a spot in the men’s individual C1 final with a 14th place finish in the semis, clocking a time of 107.60s following a touch at gate 20, while Royle had an early error on course and finished 22nd overall in a time of 113.34s.
Kimberley Woods was left to rue a series of mistakes in the middle of the course as she missed out on a medal in the women’s C1 final.
Having qualified fastest in a time of 112.84s in the semis, Woods was last to go down the Australian waters and was in good stead before a tricky section saw her pick up penalties on gates 12 and 13 to fall out of medal contention.
Woods will be back in action later in the championships as she looks to add to the team C1 bronze she won earlier in the week.
With all C1 paddlers in action today, Bethan Forrow clinched 16th overall in the women’s semi-finals with a run of 120.76s, while Ellis Miller finished 18th in 121.90s.
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