Australian Jessica Fox began her quest for a fifth C1 gold medal at the famous Tacen Whitewater Course in perfect style on Thursday, posting the quickest qualifying time to move straight into Friday’s semi-finals.
In the men’s C1 local hope Luka Bozic posted the quickest time, as he begins his quest for a second gold medal on his home course.
Fox, who has won at least one gold medal every time she has competed in Tacen since 2013, had an error free run of 11.69. She was almost four seconds quicker than Italian 2020 Olympian, Marta Bertoncelli, who was next quickest.
“It was really nice, I enjoyed it a lot, I love it here so much, when you feel the flow here it is such a great feeling,” Bertoncelli said.
“I haven’t done an international race here, this is my first one, so I’m really excited about it. I’m feeling great, and overall I feel like I’m getting better and better, and with my confidence too.”
Great Britain’s Sophie Ogilvie, despite two gate touches, was third quickest.
“I’m really happy with that, the top bit was to plan, and then I just tried to keep that going down,” Ogilvie said.
“I got a bit touchy down the bottom, so a bit of learning going into it tomorrow. I feel like I’ve had some good runs over the past two weeks, but not really my potential. But these are stepping stones into the European Games coming up.”
The top five athletes in the men’s C1 qualifying all completed the course without faults, with Bozic posting a time of 90.73, just 0.13 ahead of Italy’s Raffaello Ivaldi, with another Italian, Roberto Colazingari, who won his only career world cup gold in Tacen in 2019, finishing third.
American Zachary Lokken had one of his best runs of the year so far to qualify fourth.
“I’m pretty happy, I nailed all my lines, got a little messed up in one part, but other than that it was pretty good,” Lokken said.
“I’ve had some mixed results, not as good as I would have wanted. Overall I’m paddling pretty well, I’ve just got to hone it together and get a good run in.”
The men’s and women’s C1 finals will be decided on Friday afternoon. The third ICF Canoe Slalom and Kayak Cross World Cup will run through until Sunday.
Pics by Bence Vekassy
