Olympians Jessica Fox (AUS, U23 K1W,C1W) and Jakub Grigar (SVK, K1M U23) each topped their respective events at the semifinal stage; whilst senior world champion Jiri Prskavec (CZE) missed the cut as day three of the 2016 ICF Junior and U23 World Championships in Krakow, Poland concluded.

Fox continues to march towards gold in the C1W and K1W U23 finishing at the top end of the results board for the third and fourth time in three days.



“It’s much harder today there are lot more choices to take, quite few spins so I decided to play it really safe and spin gate 2, spin gate 9 and then few down the bottom as well a just to make sure that I get through the final with a tidy run,” said the Australian after her C1W Semifinal.

However, there is still plenty to do with an array of the world's best also securing their safe passage to the final in both classes.

Perhaps one of her strongest rivals is Kimberly Woods (GBR) who also made both finals and is a regular attendees to the podium on the international circuit.

Interestingly Spain's Annebel Van Der Knijff and France's Lucie Prioux stopped-the-clock at exactly the same time in the C1W semi to take joint ninth.

Slovakia's Grigar showed why he is so highly regarded amongst his peers with another impressive run down the Krakow channel.

The 19-year-old topped the leaderboard and comfortably progressed to this weekend’s final.

Meanwhile, the favourite and defending champion, Prskavec had a less than perfect time.

The 23-year-old Czech was comfortably in the lead up until gate 20, but a quick

In the junior semifinals, Lennard Tuchscherer (GER, C1M) put down a superb run but seemed confident of better.

"The Semifinal course looks very hard, but my run was ok, I made one or two mistakes but I finished the first place at semifinal and I think I can be faster at the final."

Meanwhile, Martina Satkova (CZE, C1W) and Felix Oschmautz (AUT, K1M) headed-up their respective races.
 
Satakova commented, "I feel really nice, I was a bit nervous before start but I knew if I go clear and do my normal run it will be ok, I am satisfied and looking forward to the final. I hope my best run and hopefully a medal for tomorrow."
 
Whilst a happy Oschmautz said, "It was a nice run, I tried to stay clean, didn’t cut the line too  much just in a few gates and it went pretty well, I try to repair the few mistakes that I’ve done for tomorrow run and we see what it comes at the end."

Fanchon Janssen of France was quickest in the K1W junior as she managed to hold of the Polish duo of Klaudia Zwolinska and Sara Cwik to secure pole position in the weekend's final.

Finally, Heger brothers, Vojtech and Tomas from Czech Republic won the C2M semifinal.

Action continues tomorrow with the C1M U23 final and 09:15 CET.

Top three qualifiers

C1W U23
1)    Jessica Fox (AUS) 103.22 no penalties
2)    Miren Lazkano (ESP) 104.08 two seconds penalty
3)    Kimberley Woods (AUS) 104.58 no penalties

K1M U23
1)    Jakub Grigar (SVK) 82.86 no penalties
2)    Michael Matejka (CZE) 83.26 no penalties
3)    Guilerme Marcello Mapelli (BRA) 85.21 no penalties

K1W U23
1)    Jessica Fox (AUS) 92.61 no penalties
2)    Karolina Galuskova (CZE) 94.30 no penalties
3)    Kimberley Woods (GBR) 95.39 no penalties

C2M U23
1)    Filip and Andrzej Brzezinski (POL) 97.74 no penalties
2)    Vadim Voinalovich and Aleksei Popov (RUS) 100.48 no penalties
3)    Michal Wiercioch and Grzegorz  Majerczak (POL) 102.15 six seconds penalty

C1M Junior
1)    Lennard Tuchscherer (GER) 93.40 no penalties
2)    Marko Mirgorodsky (SVK) 93.94  two seconds penalty
3)    Matous Prihoda (CZE) 95.11 two seconds penalty

C1W Junior
1)    Martina Satkova (CZE) 107.15 no penalties
2)    Tereza Fiserova (CZE) 108.80 two seconds penalty
3)    Nadine Weratschnig (AUT) 113.7 four seconds penalty

K1M Junior
1)    Felix Oschmutz (AUT) 87.02 two seconds penalty
2)    Ruslan Pestov (UKR) 87.27 two seconds penalty
3)    Jakob Weger (ITA) 87.55 no penalties

K1W Junior

1)    Fanchon Janssen (FRA) 99.60 two seconds penalty
2)    Klaudia Zwolinska (POL) 99.85 two seconds penalty
3)    Sara Cwik (POL) 102.09 two seconds penalty

C2M Junior

1)    Vojtech and Tomas Heger (CZE) 112.50 two seconds penalty
2)    Lennard Tuchscherer and Fritz Lehrach (GER) 112.52 six seconds penalty
3)    Jakub Brzezinski and Kacper Sztuba (POL) 112.74 two seconds penalty