No fairytale ending as Fiona pays the penalty
Crieff canoeist Fiona Pennie missed out on a fairytale finish to her glittering career when two late time penalties cost her a medal in yesterday’s K1 kayak final at the slalom World Championships in Bratislava.
The former European champion won two bronze medals on the same river at the World Junior Championships in 2000, and Pennie looked set to sign off with another podium visit until she clipped two of the last four gates to incur those fatal penalties.
Wednesday’s team gold medallist was still in third place with two paddlers left to go, but both went quicker to relegate Pennie to fifth. One less penalty would have given her bronze, while a clean run would have meant silver to add to her second place finishes in 2006 and 2014.
“It was a little bit wild at the bottom of the course and the drop there is a lottery anyway,” explained Pennie.
“I just swung a bit wide on the exit of the upstream. That made gate 22 difficult and I hit it as many other girls did.
“It was my first final since the Worlds in 2018, so if you’d told me I would be fifth today, I’d have bitten your hand off! I’m disappointed that the run fell apart at the end and left me just outside the medals, but I’m super happy to finish off with such a good result. Incidentally, I was also fifth at the World Champs in Bratislava in 2011!”
Scottish Olympian Bradley Forbes-cryans was also scuppered by time penalties as he finished 23rd in the men’s K1 semi-finals.
Edinburgh’s David Florence chases his fourth world title in today’s C1 event after qualifying third-fastest on Thursday.