Great Britain’s Ottilie Robinson-Shaw continued her swashbuckling canoe freestyle form with another gold medal on the opening day of the second ICF World Cup in Columbus, Georgia.
The 20-year-old has had a year for the ages, winning all three gold medals at the 2022 ICF World Championships in Nottingham, taking the two gold medals on offer at this week’s opening world cup in Columbus, and then adding a gold in the squirt competition on Thursday.
Gold in the men’s competition went to American Taft Sibley, a silver medalist at the world championships, while Stephan Wright and current world champion, Clay Wright, completed a clean sweep for the Americans.
Japan’s Hitomi Takaku took the silver in the women’s competition, who is showing the benefit of an extended time in Columbus training at the venue for next year’s world championships.
“I came here to train two weeks before the event, it was hard to prepare for the Squirt competition as the water levels was different almost every day,” Takaku said.
“I enjoyed world cup 1 on the ambush wave, took silver there, and now I’m looking forward to competing on good wave and chasing the gold medal this time.
“After the world cup I will stay another few days to start preparation for next year’s world championships on good wave. As the wave is pretty challenging I will see how things go in the second world cup. I definitely want to arrive earlier before next year’s worlds as this wave needs a lot of practice."
American Anna Bruno took the bronze medal in the women’s squirt final.
Pic by www.robgierschphotogra
