| The Australian Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe team have wrapped up their ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup 1 campaign in style, adding one gold, two silver and a bronze medal on the final day of competition.
It caps off a stellar opening World Cup campaign for Australia after securing five medals on the opening days of the competition, showcasing strong performances just over a year out from Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. All eyes were on the final race of the day, the exciting new Mixed K2 500 event that featured reigning world champions Aly Bull and Jackson Collins. The Australian duo continued to go from strength to strength, powering down the course to deliver a gold medal in a time of 1:36.11. They were joined on the podium by fellow Aussies Riley Fitzsimmons and Yale Steinepreis, who took out silver. Dual Olympian Bull said she enjoys mixing up her racing program, and being able to paddle with Collins. “It’s such a tough race, I feel so lucky to be able to do these Mixed events,” Bull said. “Jacko is amazing, and it feels really cool to paddle in front of him,” she said. Collins, who’s dad Dan Collins won two Olympic medals for Australia, said he’s learning so much from paddling with someone of Bull’s calibre. “It’s lots of fun, it’s a really good event and a tough race,” Collins said. “The K2 500 is one of the hardest races out there so it’s so much fun to be able to do it with Bully, and be able to get the win today,” he said. Earlier in the day, Olympic champions Tom Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen won silver in the men’s K2 500. The pair finished 0.38 seconds behind Hungarian duo Bence Nadas and Sandor Totka in the hotly contested final. Paralympian Curtis McGrath won his second medal of the regatta, claiming bronze in the men’s VL3 200. McGrath’s medal takes Australia’s tally to three gold, four silver and two bronze for the first World Cup event of the season. |
