The Australian Canoe Sprint team has followed up its outstanding form at the opening event of their international season one week ago with another two bronze medals on the opening day of the second ICF World Cup in Duisburg, Germany, on Friday.
Olympians Jordan Wood (QLD) and Riley Fitzsimmons (NSW) showed they can match it with the best in the world with a close third in the men’s K2 1000, while Cat McArthur (SA) underlined her versatility with a hard-fought bronze in the women’s K1 1000 and winning her first ever Senior medal.
Wood and Fitzsimmons set themselves a tough opening day in Duisburg, racing in the K2 500 and K2 1000, but showed they had learned a lot since finishing out of the medals in the longer race in Szeged last week.
“It’s probably the most rewarding bronze we’ve ever won, to be honest,” Fitzsimmons said.
2015 we raced this exact regatta and won the B final, and here we are in 2018 winning a medal in the A final.
“We’re pretty happy with that bronze. It’s a good stepping stone towards August (the 2018 World Championships).
Wood said they took a different attitude into this week’s competition.
“It wasn’t so much our race, it was more the way we approached it,” he said.
“We just tried to smooth the race out a lot. Every race you do is always a learning curve. AS long as you take something away from every race you do, and hopefully build that into one big game-day race.”
Wood and Fitzsimmons will contest the K2 500 final on Saturday (26 May) after qualifying straight through in their heat.
McArthur has added the K1 1000 to the K1 200 she raced in Szeged last weekend, and showed she is equally at home over the longer distance by winning her first ever senior medal.
It was also a confidence boost for the South Australian after she watched her former K4 teammates win World Cup silver last weekend.
“I’m absolutely thrilled,” she said.
“I guess with last week’s champion performance from our K4 girls I felt a little bit lost and left out in the celebrations.
“I really wanted to come out here this week and show them that I’m ready to join the team, and to keep driving that result higher. I want to be part of it.”
“I always know that I’m going to be better at the front end, so for me personally it was all about relaxing and finding a good rhythm and connection,” she said.
“I had a sneaky look with about 250 to go, and I saw there were only two girls on my right, and then a big gap, so I told myself to go again.
“But the 1000 hurts. I’m really stinging.”
In other results on the first day of competition, Olympians Alyce Burnett (QLD) and Alyssa Bull (QLD) made it through to Saturday’s K1 500 semi finals with Burnett qualifying first and Bull third in the heat.
In the men’s K2 1000 Queenslanders Billy Bain and Tom Green just missed out of the final after finishing fourth in the semi final, but went on to win the B-final.
Murray Stewart (NSW) and Simon McTavish (NSW) finished third and fourth respectively in their K1 1000m heats advancing through to Saturday’s semi finals. Stewart also progressed to the semi final in the men’s K1 500 after finishing third in his heat.
The second ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup continues in Duisburg on Saturday.
For all results and live stream see here: https://www.canoeicf.com/canoe-sprint-world-cup/duisburg-2018/
Results A Finals:
| WOMEN’S K1 1000
1 BROUGHTON Lizzie (GBR) 3.58.718 2 JOHANSSON Karin (SWE) 4.00.149 3 MCARTHUR Catherine (AUS) 4.02.739
MEN’S K2 1000 1 HOFF/GROSS (GER) 3.11.974 2 GELLE/BOTEK (SVK) 3.13.744 3 FITZSIMMONS/WOOD (AUS) 3.14.557 |
