The ICF World Slalom Championships just wrapped up at Lee Valley, London, this weekend, with home country hero Joe Clarke winning his first ever world title and Australia’s Jessica Fox returned to the top K1 podium for the first time since 2018 on a thrilling day of racing.
Clarke spoke of redemption after missing the final in front of home fans in 2015, and then losing Olympic selection at the 2019 world championships in 2019. On Saturday he was almost two seconds quicker than the next fastest paddler in the K1 semi-finals, and then posted a similar margin in the final.
Clarke won Olympic K1 gold in 2016 and missed selection for Tokyo. In winning his first ever individual world championship medal he has almost certainly guaranteed he will return to the Olympics in Paris.
“It’s been a long time coming, I’ve been there and thereabouts so many times, but penalties have always taken that medal away from me, so to come here, do two clean and very fast runs today at home makes it that little bit more special, the icing on the cake, and here we are – loving it,” Clarke said. “You probably saw my celebration through the finish, that wasn’t just because of the world title, that was also a celebration for all the hard work. One of the quotes that got me through was that tough times don’t last, but tough people do, and I think I’ve shown that today.”
Defending Olympic and world champion, Jiri Prskavec, took the silver, while Morocco’s Mathis Soudi made history by winning a first ever world championship medal for his country and for Africa.
Jessica Fox finally found her way back to the top of the podium for the first time in women’s K1 since 2018, in the process bringing up her 10th overall world title. The Australian had to work hard for the gold, picking up an early gate touch and then almost capsizing on the bottom of the course.
“It meant a lot, there’s been such a big build up this week, and 2018 was my last world title, and there was a lot of emotion because that run was full of emotion. I let it all out at the finish, all the joy, all the emotion,” Fox said.
“I couldn’t really hear the loud speaker, but I could hear the intensity of the crowd so I knew it was a pretty good run, and I was really pulling hard right until the end. I was hoping it would be enough for a podium, I didn’t know about the win, but I was giving it everything and you have to keep going to the finish and never give up. I’m really proud to have been able to do that today.
“I’m always pleased to be battling it out with the best, and to be consistently up there and be on the podium. This one is world title number 10, which is a really special one. I’ve been chasing this one for a long time and it just means so much to me.”
Slovakia’s Eliska Mintalova followed her world cup gold in La Seu with silver on Saturday, while Poland’s Klaudia Zwolinska took the bronze.
Another 15 Olympic quotas were determined on Saturday for both the men’s and women’s K1. Subject to ratification, the men’s quotas will go to Great Britain, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Switzerland, Morocco, Australia, Slovenia, Poland, Spain, China, Sweden, New Zealand, Japan, Ireland, and Slovakia. The big surprise from the men’s K1 is the failure of Germany, a four-time Olympic champion, to earn a quota for the Paris Olympics.
In the women’s K1, and subject to ratification, the quotas will provisionally be awarded to Germany, New Zealand, Poland, Italy, Slovakia, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Great Britain, France Czech Republic, Brazil, Austria, Slovenia, Japan and Australia.
K1 RESULTS
WOMEN’S K1
- FOX Jessica (AUS) 103.60 (2 seconds in penalties)
- MINTALOVA Eliska (SVK) 104.73 (2)
- ZWOLINSKA Klaudia (POL) 105.00 (0)
MEN’S K1
- CLARKE Joseph (GBR) 91.32 (0)
- PRSKAVEC Jiri (CZE) 93.26 (0)
- SOUDI Mathis (MOR) 93.91 (0)
Read more about Paris Olympic quotas here:
https://olympics.com/en/news/pathway-to-paris-canoe-slalom-qualification-system-explained
Compared to Tokyo 2020, two more events have been added to the Paris 2024 programme with extreme kayak making its debut at the Olympics. Paris 2024 will be the ninth time canoe slalom has been part of the Olympic programme, after the sport made its full Olympic debut at Barcelona 1992.At Paris 2024, extreme kayak (women’s WX1 and men’s MX1) will debut at the Olympics, increasing the overall number of events by two. However, the number of athletes participating at the Games will not change. Similar to the Tokyo 2020 Games, there will be a total of 82 athletes competing in canoe slalom at Paris 2024, 41 women and 41 men, distributed across six events (three per gender):
Women
- Kayak (WK1): 21 athletes
- Canoe (WC1): 17 athletes
- Extreme Kayak (WX1): three athletes
Men
- Kayak (MK1): 21 athletes
- Canoe (MC1): 17 athletes
- Extreme Kayak (MX1): three athletes
World Champs Men’s and Women’s Team Results
Four nations shared the team gold medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships at Lee Valley , including a first ever title for the Australian women’s K1 team. The team event features three athletes from each country racing down the slalom course together.
Host nation Great Britain, Paris 2024 host France, and the Czech Republic also picked up gold medals in the team events in challenging conditions at the London 2012 Olympic venue.
In women’s K1, Australia showed the benefit of posting clean runs to win its very ever teams gold medal. Jessica and Noemie Fox and Kate Eckhardt were one of just two teams to not pick up any penalties, which was enough to take them to the top of the podium for the first time.
Spain, with a single gate touch, took second, while Great Britain had the fastest raw time on the course, but two gate touches saw the home nation relegated to third. The same Australian trio had also contested the women’s C1 team event, where a 50-second penalty knocked then out of medal contention.
“It’s definitely a bit of an advantage, but we don’t get to practice teams all that often, especially compared to the other European nations,” Noemie Fox said.
“But we worked really well as a team, so to put down that run is truly special.”
Ellis Miller only got the call up to compete in the women’s C1 teams event on the eve of the world championships following a shoulder injury to Sophie Ogilvie, and on Tuesday Miller got the chance to celebrate Great Britain’s first gold medal in the event since 2018, and their third overall.
Teammates Kimberley Woods and Mallory Franklin were both part of the winning teams in 2018 and 2017.
“It’s obviously nice to do this at home, and it was a really good solid clean run, I felt pretty confident when we got to the finish line,” Franklin said.
“It’s the first time we’ve done the team run together, so it was just making sure that we knew the water well, we knew how to paddle on this course, we’re all good on this course, and we worked well together,” Woods said.
The Czech Republic kept up its perfect record of a medal at every women’s C1 team event by finishing second, while Slovenia took the bronze, winning its first ever medal in the event.
In men’s C1 teams, France returned to the top of the podium after losing their title to Slovenia last year. The French combination of Nicolas Gestin, Jules Bernardet and Lucas Roisin finished just 0.03 seconds ahead of Great Britain, while Italy repeated its bronze medal performance of 12 months ago.
“I’m really happy to do this today with Jules and Lucas, we already did some team runs together in 2019, when it was not perfect,” Gestin said. “But today it was really better, and we were able to take the gold. For sure it is great to do this today, it is a step, but we have another battle. We have a hard week in front of us.”
In the men’s K1 the Czech Republic returned to the top of the podium for the first time since 2017. Reigning Olympic champion Jiri Prskavec, reigning world champion Vit Prindis, and U23 world champion Jakub Krejci proved too strong.
“It’s been six years, but we are back here,” Prskavec said.
“It’s a combination of the three of us being good at individual categories, really fast. Jakub in the middle is really strong, and Jiri and I are used to paddling together because for the past ten years we have been racing in the same position, we just mixing the man in the middle. We had a good run and we really enjoyed it,” Prindis said.
The ICF World Championships and Paris 2024 Olympic qualifiers continue at Lee Valley on Wednesday, with heats in the men’s and women’s C1.
RESULTS – TEAMS
WOMEN C1
- Great Britain 45 (0 seconds penalties)
- Czech Republic 114.55 (0)
- Slovenia 32 (2)
MEN C1
- France 17 (0)
- Great Britain 99.20 (0)
- Italy 31 (0)
WOMEN K1
- Australia 62 (0)
- Spain 91 (2)
- Great Britain 109.02 (4)
MEN K1
- Czech Republic 76 (0)
- France 99 (0)
- Poland 33 (2)
Pics by Antony Edmonds
Men’s and Women’s Kayak Cross
Joe Clarke won his third consecutive kayak cross world title and Kimberley Woods her first as Great Britain made a clean sweep of the gold medals on the final day of the ICF World Championships in Lee Valley, London, on Sunday.
A big crowd was on hand at the 2012 Olympic venue to lift the British paddlers to double gold and to cement their place at the top of the medal table.
24 hours after Clarke celebrated his first ever K1 world title he was back on top of the podium again, surviving a grueling final duel with France’s Boris Neveu to add the 2023 crown to the gold medals he won in 2021 and 2022.
Clarke said he struggled to get back into his boat today after the euphoria of the previous day’s triumph.
“A lot of the times that I’ve done well at kayak cross I’ve had disappointment in slalom, so you get fired up and ready to go,” Clarke said.
“I was shattered this morning when I woke up. I just thought right, let’s just go for it. It’s been a dreamy weekend for me, it doesn’t get any better than this. Two gold medals, two world championship medals, my son was watching – I love it.”
Neveu took his third ICF kayak cross silver, while Martin Dougoud finished with the bronze, his first kayak cross championship medal.
Kimberley Woods also had difficulty getting back on the water on Sunday, but her roadblock was the disappointment of missing the women’s K1 final on Saturday. But after winning gold as part of Great Britain’s women’s C1 team on the opening day of the championships, Woods dug deep to take her first ever kayak cross world title.
“I was really disappointed after my K1 racing yesterday, pretty heartbroken, and I came in to today still pretty broken, but now it’s just incredible, to be a world champion,” Woods said.
“I felt pretty nervous as the runs went on. There was just a moment when I felt, this is awesome, just so happy to have been here.
“I struggled to sleep a bit, but I used all of my skills through all of my journey through mental health to pick myself up. I was still teary this morning, even getting to the semi-final was really tough, but I just tried to enjoy it.”
France’s Camille Prigent won the silver, and Slovenia’s Eva Tercelj the bronze.
Host nation Great Britain finished the week as the most successful nation, picking up five gold, two silver and a bronze medal. Australia with two gold and a bronze was second, while France had one gold and four silver.
RESULTS
WOMEN’S KAYAK CROSS
- WOODS Kimberley (GBR)
- PRIGENT Camille (FRA)
- TERCELJ Eva (SLO)
MEN’S KAYAK CROSS
- CLARKE Joseph (GBR)
- NEVEU Boris (FRA)
- DOUGOUD Martin (SUI)
The full Paris 2024 qualifying details can be found here.
The 2023 ICF Canoe Slalom and Kayak Cross World Championships begin on September 19 and run through to September 24. The official event website can be accessed here.
An international media guide for the event can be downloaded from here.
A guide for all media attending the world championships can be downloaded here.
