Kimberley Woods has made a welcome return to the podium at the Slalom World Cup 4 in Ivrea, Italy, with a silver medal in the women’s individual canoe.
With yesterday’s high winds forcing a change to the schedule, a packed day saw the medals awarded for both the men’s and women’s individual kayak and canoe events on a challenging course.
Following a tremendous Olympic Games for Kimberley, who won two bronze medals in the K1 and kayak cross, the Rugby athlete claimed a fine silver medal in her first individual canoe World Cup of the season.
With a strong start in the women’s canoe semi-final, recording a clean run and a time of 107.86, Kimberley ensured qualification with fourth place.
In the final, a fast start and successful negotiation around the difficult combination of gates 17 and 18 put Kimberley over three seconds ahead.
On a difficult last gate Kim lost some momentum, but took the lead in a time of 106.24, with just three paddlers to go.
Only Gabriela Satkova from Czechia could better Kim’s time, to ensure the silver medal for Woods.
Speaking about her silver medal in the individual canoe final, Kimberley Woods said:
“I remember this time at the last Olympic cycle, the first race of the World Cup after the Games didn’t go so well. I was just here to really enjoy it.
“I’ve had one session on it so I split the sessions up in half for K1 and C1. So I wasn’t fully prepared for it with the time out of the boat, a couple of weeks after the Games.
“But I still had the skills and confidence to build through each round in the canoe and the kayak too.
“I absolutely loved racing again and was just really keen to get back to it.
“I lost a bit of time at the bottom, but I was really happy to come away with a silver medal. It was a bit unexpected. I was really chuffed that I could get a medal today.”
It was not to be for Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Mallory Franklin. After qualifying in fourth place, two early touches on gates 6 and 11 put the Windsor athlete under pressure. The difficult midsection saw Mallrory lose crucial time and finish in 14h place.
It was an eventful morning for Ellis Miller who had to navigate past another paddler ahead of her, but still managed to go clean despite the poles swinging on gate 21. In a rerun Ellis made a great effort to secure a top ten place, but late two touches saw the Lee Valley paddler take 17th.
Olympic silver medallist Adam Burgess also made a return to action in the men’s canoe. In the semi final a touch on gate 13, and a review by the judges on the upstream gate 21, put Adam into ninth place.
But it was not to be in the final for the Stafford and Stone paddler, who missed gate 9 and had a touch on the upstream gate 18, to finish in 11th place.
Fellow Stafford and Stone paddler Kurts Adam-Rozentals had also qualified for the semi-finals, but a misjudged upstream gate 18 and touch saw Kurts miss out.on the top ten, taking 17th place.
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In the women’s kayak Mallory Franklin qualified for the final, after taking ninth place in a time of 103.04. In the final touches on 9 and 10 put Mallory back, and an issue on gate 18 saw Franklin finish in eighth place.
Kimberley Woods also returned back to the water for the kayak, but a touch on gate 11 and lost time on the final gate 24 saw the Olympic bronze medallist miss out on the top ten, taking 19th place.
Under 23 world champion Lois Leaver (Edinburgh Schools) had early touches on gates 3 and 7, and on the challenging upstream gate 18, went too deep. Unable to paddle back, Lois was given a 50 second penalty, to take 28th place.
In the men’s kayak fresh from becoming Under 23 European Champion, Ben Haylett blazed down the course to take first place and set the fastest time of 86.84.
But a nervous wait on three reviews saw the Holme Pierrepont paddler given 50 second penalties on gates 3 and 9 to finish in 37th place.
Chris Bowers (Stafford & Stone) made a quick start, and was in contention with the leaders. But despite going clear, lost time at the end of the course which saw Chris not make the top ten and take 19th.
After a difficult mid section and missed gates for Jake Brown, the paddler from Tees Tigers finished in 40th place.
The full results from the World Cup can be found here
Tomorrow will see the kayak cross time trials and head-to-head races take place, with Olympic silver and bronze medallists Joe Clarke MBE and Kimberley Woods both in action.
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