The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
European title retained by British trio
Great Britain’s women struck gold on the second day of the canoe slalom European Championships in Tacen, Slovenia, in the women’s canoe single team event.
The trio of Mallory Franklin, Kimberley Woods and former Strathallan School pupil Eilidh Gibson won the event for the second successive year, by a margin of more than four seconds from Germany and the Czech Republic.
They had given a hint to their strong form on the opening day, all qualifying directly to the semi-final from their respective first heat runs.
Kinross-born Eilidh Gibson said: “Team events are a different ball game when you get to go down the course altogether and you need to work as a team.
“To come out with gold was exciting, particularly as we were coming into it as European champions, so to defend our title is really cool.
“The river is amazing and very big, so it is exciting to paddle in that big water.
“It was useful to get another run down the course today ahead of the individual semi-finals tomorrow. The course will change slightly but not too much and we will just fine tune the plan in the morning for whatever changes are made.”
Yesterday saw the conclusion of two days of heats across all five classes with GB competing in all but the canoe double (C2).
There were solid performances across the board to see Great Britain qualify 11 from 12 boats for the semifinals over the weekend.
However there was disappointment for Scot David Florence who the C1 heats, missed the top 20 cut off required to progress.