- One gold, two silver medals for canoe sprint paddlers
- One silver, one bronze for paracanoeists
- Women’s Canoeist write sporting history
- Olympic bronze medallist Lachlan Tame is back
There were no medals for Australia on the final day of the ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Poznan, Poland, but the team heads to World Cup 2 in Duisburg, Germany next weekend full of confidence after some solid performances over the week.
Overall, the opening ICF Paracanoe and Canoe Sprint World Cup of the 2019 season saw Australia’s sprint paddlers winone gold and two silver medals as well as one silver and one bronze medal in the paracanoe classes.
On the final day, Rio Olympians Riley Fitzsimmons and Jordan Wood finished sixth in the A final of the men’s K2 1000 after winning silver in the men’s K2 500 on Saturday.
Brianna Massie and Jaime Roberts wrapped up the regatta for Australia with a ninth place in the A final of the women’s K2 200. It was the first Senior World Cup and first senior final for Massie, who got the late call-up to join the team only a couple of weeks ago.
Massie + Roberts
Earlier in the day, the Australian women’s K4 team of Alyssa Bull, Alyce Burnett, Cat McArthur and Jo Brigden-Jones finished second in their 500 metre B final, while the men’s K4 team of Jackson Collins, Murray Stewart, Thomas Green and Joel McKitterick finished third in their B final.
Bull, who won gold for Australia in the K1 1000 on Saturday, said the K4 will need to focus on its mistakes.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but it’s good that we can go out there and put in a couple of good races,” Bull said.
“But we’re going to go back to the drawing board and see if we can work on a few little things, try and iron things out. But we would be worried if we didn’t have anything to work on.”
Burnett, who took silver behind her Rio 2016 K2 partner in the K1 1000, said the adverse conditions were a factor.
“These conditions are pretty tough, and maybe we came a bit unstuck in them in the past couple of days,” Burnett said.
“We knew what we had to work on for that, and I think we did that well. But we have got a lot to work on, and being an Olympic qualification year, we need to be in an A final and it’s as simple as that.”
The men’s K4 also identified areas they need to work on.
McKitterick, Green, Stewart, Collins
“It’s been a pretty rough week for us,” London Olympian Murray Stewart said after the final.
“That was a better race, but we’ve got a long way to go. We’re a long way off the pace at the moment. It’s a new crew and a new year, but we’ve got a lot to work on.
“There’s no reason to panic, but you definitely need to get some of those little things right quickly. That B final was better, we just need to make sure that’s the benchmark from here and we go up in the future.”
Josie Bulmer and Bernadette Wallace wrote sporting history over the weekend and finished off their first international event in the women’s canoe double with a seventh place in the B final of the C2 500 on Sunday. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will include women’s canoe events for the first time and the World Cup in Poznan was the first international event for Bulmer and Wallace who only started training together six month ago. See full story HERE.
The pair also raced the women’s C1 200 with Josephine Bulmer finishing sixth and Bernadette Wallace eighth in the B final on Saturday with the regatta a big learning curve for both of them.
“This was the firsttime Australia has had a C2 competein the Seniors on the internationalstage and we are watching and learning as much as we can. Poznan was packed full of challenges. Not only was it my first time lining up in a canoe internationally, the conditions this course gave us all were unpredictable. It is an outdoor sport so we are susceptible to the elements and Poznan gave its best to bounce us all around,” Bernadette Wallace reflected on her fist canoe and first international event since 2015.
Bernadette Wallace
“In the C1, my goal was the make it as far through the rounds as I could and just learn the process again. I am happy with a tight B final and am glad I am competitive with the rest of the world as my starting platform.
“The C2 was a huge learning curve racing with full lanes. We have only been in this boat since November so we are on a steep learning curve against crews that have been on the water for years and we are happy with what we learnt to move onto our preparations for Duisburg World Cup.”
In other results over the weekend, teenager Tom Green put in a strong performance winning his heat and semi in the men’s K1 1000 and fought to the line to finish seventh in the final. 20-year old newcomer to the team, Jean van der Westhuyzen, finished his first Senior regatta and his first international competition in the green and gold with a third place in the B final of the men’s K1 1000.
The Canoe Sprint World Cup 1, also saw the comeback of Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Lachlan Tame to the international racing circuit with Tame finishing sixth in the men’s K1 500 final on Saturday. Teammate Matt Goble finished right behind him in seventh place.
The team will next head to Germany to contest the second ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup of the season next weekend 31 May – 2 June 2019.
The paracanoe team will be heading back to Australia this week taking home World Cup silver and bronze and two close fourth places.
Rio 2016 bronze medallist Susan Seipel won silver in the VL2 200 – the boat class that will premiere at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and added a strong fourth place in the women’s KL2 200 to a successful weekend.
Susan Seipel
Rio 2016 silver medallist Amanda Reynolds won bronze in the women’s KL3 200, while fellow Paralympian and youngster on the team Dylan Littlehales narrowly missed out of a medal by 0.07 seconds in the final of the men’s KL3 200 on Saturday.
The next international event for the paracanoe team will be the ICF Paracanoe World Championships and Paralympic qualification in Szeged, Hungary at the end of August.
The ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup II in Duisburg, Germany starts on Friday, 31 May 2019.
See all results: http://bit.ly/ResultsPoznan2019
Head to @auspaddleteamon facebook for all the interviews & race clips from the event.
Cath up on all the racing HERE.
2019 ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup 1, Poznan, Poland:
OLYMPIC CLASSES
| Men | ||
| Entry 1 | Entry 2 | |
| MK1 500 | Lachlan Tame (NSW) – 6th | Matt Goble (SA) – 7th |
| MK2 500 | Riley Fitzsimmons (NSW) + Jordan Wood (QLD) – 2nd | |
| MK4 500 | Jackson Collins (QLD) /Joel McKitterick (QLD) / Murray Stewart (NSW) / Tom Green (QLD) – B final: 3rd | |
| MK1 1000 | Tom Green (QLD) – 7th | Jean van der Westhuyzen (QLD) – B-final: 3rd |
| MK2 1000 | Riley Fitzsimmons (NSW) + Jordan Wood (QLD): 6th | |
| Women | ||
| Entry 1 | Entry 2 | |
| WK1 200 | Cat McArthur (SA) – C-Final: 4th | Jo Brigden-Jones (NSW) – C-Final: 1st |
| WK2 200 | Jaime Roberts (WA) / Brianna Massie (QLD): 9th | |
| WK2 500 | Jaime Roberts / Brianna Masie | |
| WK4 500 | Cat McArthur /Jo Brigden-Jones / Alyce Burnett / Alyssa Bull – B-final 2nd | |
| WK1 1000 | Alyce Burnett (QLD) – 2nd | Alyssa Bull (QLD) – 1st |
| WC1 200 | Josephine Bulmer (SA) – B-final 6th | Bernadette Wallace (SA) – B-final 8th |
| WC2 500 | Josephine Bulmer / Bernadette Wallace – B-final 7th | |
PARALYMPIC CLASSES
| Men | |
| KL3 200 | Dylan Littlehales (NSW) – 4th |
| Women | |
| KL3 200 | Amanda Reynolds (VIC) – 3rd |
| KL2 200 | Susan Seipel (QLD) – 4th |
| VL2 200 | Susan Seipel (QLD) – 2nd |
