Czech Lukas Rohan reminded everyone of his skills as a C1 paddler while Australia’s Jessica Fox made it a golden treble weekend at the Oceania Slalom Championships in Penrith on Sunday.
Fox dominated the weekend on her home course, posting won of her most impressive results from a stunning canoe paddling career, to finish more than nine seconds ahead of the next best C1 paddler on the challenging Penrith course.
Fox posted an error-free winning time of 106.48 to add to the impressive K1 gold she won 24 hours earlier.
“I think I had one of my best runs I’ve had on this course, a little mistake at the top but the rest was nice, and probably the better section felt better than my K1,” Fox said.
“Sometimes that’s the joy of C1, that you can nail all the moves and the stopper moves here once you’re on line, you can get a lot of time.
“I think each time I race it’s an opportunity to learn, it’s an opportunity to put my strategies and processes to the test and you learn from each run. I always think it’s a good opportunity, and especially when we have international athletes out here.”
Czech Gabriela Satkova was second with a time of 115.56, while American Evy Leibfarth (116.35 with a two-second penalty) took the bronze.
Fox finished the weekend with another kayak cross gold, edging out Frenchwoman Camille Prigent, while for the second time this weekend Noemie Fox, Jess's younger sister, finished with the bronze.
Noemie Fox is hoping to earn one of just three kayak cross Olympic quotas in Prague later this year, to join her sister in Paris.
Lukas Rohan’s performances in canoe slalom during 2023 were somewhat overshadowed by the arrival of teammate and Tokyo K1 gold medalist, Jiri Prskavec, on the scene, despite Rohan having won silver in the men’s C1 in Tokyo.
Rohan and Prskavec are still locked in an intense battle to earn the right to represent Czechia, but on Sunday the Olympic silver medalist issued a timely reminder of his abilities with an error-free finals run in 102.75.
But Rohan was not satisfied with his run.
“I’m really happy about the first win of the season and the final results, but to be honest I’m a little bit disappointed with the last gate combination, because in the semi-final I did a similar mistake there,” Rohan said.
“It’s true that last season, from our first races in Czechia for selection, it was quite a different situation because we were racing against Jiri. Everybody was a bit surprised with how good he was, but I wasn’t because I had seen what he could do in sessions before the season.
“He was really good, and now he is even better, but I know that I can beat him, and that’s the important thing for me.”
Australia’s Brodie Crawford (103.57) broke through for his best ever result in a senior international, taking the silver medal and also locking away an Olympic quota for his country. Tokyo Olympian Adam Burgess (104.91) from Great Britain finished third, while Prskavec was fourth.
France's Mathurin Madore won the men's kayak cross final, ahead of Switzerland's Martin Dougoud and New Zealand's Finn Butcher.
Many of the athletes will contest the Australian Open on the same Penrith course next weekend.
