Mallory produces her best in final

Windsor’s Mallory Franklin produced an excellent run in the final of the women’s C1 canoe slalom on Thursday to take a well-earned silver medal from her first Olympic Games.

Franklin was sixth fastest heading into the final after a mixed performance in the semis, but she had posted two of the quickest times in the heats, so knew she had the speed and technical proficiency to be in with a chance of a medal.

She was one of the first athletes to take on the course in the final and posted a time that put pressure on all of her rivals to come, including the favourite, Australia’s Jess Fox.

The 27-year-old’s time of 1.08.68 included a two second penalty for striking the 15th of the 25 gates on the course, but it was good enough to move her up into provisional gold medal position with five competitors still to do their runs.

Four of them fell short of Franklin’s time, but Fox, the world number one, produced a clean run and a quick time of 1.05.04 to take gold from the Windsor athlete, with Germany’s Andrea Herzog taking the bronze medal.

Franklin has struggled to produce her best runs in this year’s finals, so to lay down a marker for her competition in Tokyo was a real morale boost as she looks ahead to future competitions and the Paris Olympics in 2024.

“I think for me, personally, I’ve had some struggles in my finals this year, so to put down a run of that quality, even with the touch, is just amazing,” she said.

W Maidenhead's Liam Heath produced a commanding showing in yesterday's K1 200m heat to progress through to the semi-finals and finals which are due to take place today (Thursday).