French teenager Tom Dolle has underlined his star quality with a dominant performance in the preliminary rounds of the junior kayak at the 2017 ICF Freestyle Kayak Championships in San Juan, Argentina, on Tuesday.
17-year-old Dolle is expected to post scores that could challenge American Dane Jackson in the open kayak title later this week, and showed he is in good form with a flawless display in the junior category on Tuesday.
American Sage Donnelly also showed she is going to be hard to beat in this weekend’s junior finals, qualifying almost 100 points ahead of Great Britain’s Ottilie Robinson-Shaw and fellow American, Olivia McGinnis, in the women’s junior preliminaries.
Donnelly finished on 866.67 points, ahead of Robinson-Shaw on 773.34, with McGinnis posting 573.33.
WATCH HIGHLIGHTS OF THE JUNIOR PRELIMINARY ROUNDS HERE
But it was Dolle who caught the eye on Tuesday, posting a score of 2810.00, putting him 700 points ahead of Great Britain’s Alex Walters on 2111.67, with American Hayden Voorhees third on 2063.33.
“Yeah I’m pretty happy, I had some good rides. It was a lot of fun,” Dolle said.
“I’m super nervous, but it’s part of the game. I have a routine, but I don’t really do it in the preliminaries because I don’t want to do my biggest rides, so I keep those rides for the end.
“I’m feeling nervous, but happy at the same time to be here. This hole is super fun, easy, and really good for doing tricks.”
The men’s open preliminaries will be held on Wednesday.
Pics by Peter Holcombe