Visitors dominate Oceania Champs
International paddlers dominated the first finals at the Oceania Canoe Slalom Championships in Auckland yesterday, though the constantlyimproving course also won its fair share of plaudits.
Czech Republic paddler Katerina Kudejova took out the women’s K1 title at Vector Wero Whitewater Park, with Olympic medallists Jess Fox (Australia) and Luuka Jones ( New Zealand) both missing gates to ruin their chances.
Frenchman Kilian Foulon also stayed out of trouble on the tricky artificial rapids to win the men’s C1 crown, despite Australians Daniel Watkins and Brodie Crawford and American Casey Eichfeld all recording faster raw times.
“It wasn’t necessary to go hard but it was best to paddle smooth, rather than try to go too fast,” 28-year-old Kudejova said. “People say there are so many stoppers on the course but I like it — it’s no problem for me.”
Her 100.66s time was clear of touches, as was second-placed Australian Rosalyn Lawrence, who finished just 0.82s behind Kudejova and nearly a second in front of Camille Prigent (France).
Lawrence has paddled the course as much as any of the internationals, having competed in last year’s Oceania titles, as well as both editions of the Whitewater XL event. She’s seen vast improvements in the Wero course in the past 18 months.
“It’s hard to have a clean run at Wero. It’s a tricky course and it can be quite unpredictable,” Lawrence said. “There are more vertical walls here, which makes it surge a little bit, but it’s a much nicer course than last year. It just takes time and tweaking and the courses naturally get better. I really enjoyed it this year.”
Fox posted the fastest time of the day, a raw time of 96.53s, but missed gate six altogether and picked up two late touches as well. Jones was also quick but missed gate 13.
It was a similar story in the men’s C1, where Foulon’s conservative approach paid dividends, as the only paddler in the final not to earn a penalty. “I had a bad run in the semifinal with a couple of touches but I was really pleased with the final,” the Frenchman said.
His time of 97.86s was just 0.39s in front of Watkins, who picked up two touches, as did Eichfeld, who was just 0.01s behind third-placed Crawford in 99.60s.
The best of the Kiwis was Ben Gibb in seventh, just 6.62s off the pace. Today is the semifinals and finals for both the men’s K1 and the women’s C1, alongside the first Oceania Boatercross (extreme slalom) Championships, which features four boats racing down the course at once.