A surprise silver medal for the Australian women’s K4 500 sprint canoe team at last weekend’s first Sprint World Cup of the 2018 season in Hungary (18-20 May) has filled the entire team with confidence as they head into the second ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup, beginning tonight in Duisburg, Germany (25-27 May 2018).
The K4 combination of Alyce Burnett (QLD), Alyssa Bull (NSW), Jaime Roberts (WA) and Jo Brigden-Jones (NSW) finished a gallant second behind a world-class New Zealand team in Szeged last week, despite only two full months of preparation as a team.
The Australians will have the same athletes competing this weekend, including two-time Olympian Murray Stewart (NSW) in the K1 500 and K1 1000, former World U23 K2 1000 champions and Olympians Jordan Wood (QLD) and Riley Fitzsimmons (NSW), as well as 2016 Olympians Burnett and Bull both in the K1 500.
Another one looking to build on her strong performance from Szeged will be Australia’s lone canoe paddler, Josie Bulmer (SA), who will line up in the C1 200 and C1 5000.
It’s Bulmer’s second year on the Australian team.
“I was happy with last week,” Bulmer said on the eve of her first ever competition in Duisburg.
“My semi-final wasn’t the best, but I came back nicely in the B final, which I was happy with.
“I felt a lot more confident, especially after my heat. My start is a lot better than last year.”
Cat McArthur (SA) will race the K1 200 and the K1 1000, while Bull and Burnett have both also signed up for the grueling K1 5000.
Billy Bain (QLD) and Tom Green (QLD) will join Fitzsimmons and Wood in the K2 1000, Simon McTavish (NSW) will join Stewart in the K1 1000, and McTavish, Green, Bain and Matt Goble (SA) will once again race the K4 500.
Wood and Fitzsimmons will also contest the K2 500, while two-time Olympian Stephen Bird (WA) will have his second outing since returning from retirement in the K1 200.
“We had some encouraging performances at the first Sprint World Cup in Hungary last week. Obviously we like to win some medals and the K4 women brought it home and finished the regatta well for us,” Shaun Stephens, Australian Canoeing’s National Performance Director said after the first Sprint World Cup.
“It was really encouraging to see Riley and Jordan mix it up with the international best and finish fifth in both the K2 500 and 1000. We had high expectations for them and certainly our belief is that they are well and truly medal contenders against the field and their performance in Hungary warrants that sort of expectation.
Murray is certainly right on form, just outside the medals with fourth and fifth in the K1 1000 and 500 and obviously the women are going from strength to strength.
So all in all there were some very positive signs coming out of the first World Cup and encouraging results moving forward. We do want more medals and the first regatta showed that we are on track to deliver those, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” Stephens added ahead of Duisburg.
The second ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup begins in Duisburg, Germany, tonight, and runs through until Sunday (27 May 2018.)
Full details, including start lists, schedules, results and live streaming of the races, can be found here.
See some highlights from Sprint World Cup 1 here
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See full list of Australian competitors at the 2018 ICF CANOE SPRINT WORLD CUP 2
| Men’s Events | |
| K1M – 200 | Stephen Bird (WA) |
| K1M – 500 | Murray Stewart (NSW) |
| K2M – 500 | Riley Fitzsimmons (NSW)
Jordan Wood (QLD) |
| K4M – 500 | Matthew Goble (SA)
William Bain (QLD) Thomas Green (QLD) Simon McTavish (NSW) |
| K1M – 1000 | Murray Stewart (NSW)
Simon McTavish (NSW) |
| K2M – 1000 | Riley Fitzsimmons (NSW)
Jordan Wood (QLD) |
| William Bain (QLD)
Thomas Green (QLD) |
|
| Women’s Events | |
| K1W – 200 | Catherine McArthur (SA) |
| K1W – 500 | Alyssa Bull (QLD)
Alyce Burnett (QLD) |
| K4W – 500
|
Alyssa Bull (QLD)
Alyce Burnett (QLD) Jaime Roberts (WA) Jo Brigden-Jones (NSW) |
| K1W – 1000 | Catherine McArthur (SA) |
| K1W – 5000
|
Allysa Bull (QLD)
Alyce Burnett (QLD) |
| C1W – 200 | Josephine Bulmer (SA) |
| C1W – 5000 | Josephine Bulmer (SA) |
