Lois Leaver - canoe slalom

Lois Leaver is part of Team GB for canoe slalom - she’s also studying to be a doctor! Read her report on canoe slalom here …

Canoe Slalom at Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Canoe slalom is an incredibly unpredictable sport. It is vastly different from the likes of swimming and weightlifting. There are a huge number of variables that play a part in an athlete’s performance. From the rapidly changing white water, the different venues around the world and the near infinite number of gate combinations possible to race on, one changing wave or miss-timed paddle stroke can make or break your race in a split second.

When an athlete sits on the start line of a canoe slalom race, there is never a guarantee of the time they can complete the course in. Take Adam Peaty for example, going into the Tokyo Games he knows exactly how fast he can swim 200m breaststroke and what the record to beat is. In canoe slalom there is no standard time, no world record to beat. The only standard athletes have to compare to is themselves and their own ability.

The aim of a canoe slalom race is the navigate the white water going through upstream (red) and downstream (green) gates hanging above the water as fast as you can. An athlete will incur a 2 second time penalty for touching a gate and 50 seconds for missing a gate. The fastest time from the start to finish wins the race.

The first event of the games to take place was the men’s canoe (C1M), with fifteen boats qualifying from the heats to the semi-final. Matej Benus (SVK) finished first in the heat, with Adam Burgess (GBR) qualifying comfortably in third, 2.75 seconds off first.

The next event was women’s kayak (K1W). Jessica Fox (AUS), took first place after her heats run. Kimberley Woods, Great Britain’s only athlete finished ninth after the heats and qualified for the semi-final. The youngest athlete on the field Evy Leibfarth (USA) qualified in 15th place at just 17 years old.

Semi-final day for the C1M took place on Monday. At the canoe slalom venue, the 15 boats that qualified from heats were battling it out to make the final. Martin Thomas (FRA) posted the fastest time to qualify in first place. Dan Watkin (AUS) was in a close second followed by Ander Elosegi (ESP). Adam Burgess qualified in eighth for Team GB. The final got off to a slow start with no one putting down a faster run than the semi-finals. Burgess had a good run but not enough to secure a medal position, finishing fourth just 0.16 seconds behind Germany’s Sideris Tasiadis who secured the bronze medal. Lukas Rohan (CZE) finished in second place on his Olympic debut and Benjamin Savsek (SLO) put down a flying run 3.71 seconds ahead of silver to take the top spot on the podium.

Next up to race their semi-finals were the K1W. Once again Jessica Fox (AUS) raced down the tough white water at the Kasai White Water Course to qualify for the finals in first position followed by Eliska Mintalova (SVK) and Ricarda Funk (GER). Woods from Great Britain qualified sixth and Leibfarth placed twelfth at her first games. Maialen Chourraut (ESP) who was Olympic Champion from Rio 2016 and also the oldest paddler competing (age 38) went almost 3 seconds faster than her semi-final run to leap to the top of the leader board with six competitors still to go. Unfortunately for Woods she didn’t manage to complete the course without any mistakes and dropped to the bottom of the scoreboard, leaving the race open for Fox and Funk to challenge the reigning Olympic Champ. Funk was up next and after a small mistake in the middle of the course it was going to be awfully close to beat Chourraut, but she went over the finish line over a second faster than the Spaniard to secure herself a medal with only one athlete remaining. Arguably the fan favorite to win after storming through the heats and semi-finals was Fox, but after 4 seconds in time penalties and a costly

mistake she crossed the line to take third place. The podium finished as Germany in gold, Spain in silver and Australia in bronze.

Wednesday marked a historic day in canoe slalom history as the first ever canoe women’s (C1W) event at an Olympic Games took place in a bid for gender equality. C1W has replaced the canoe men’s double (C2M) event for Tokyo 2020 resulting in an even a 50/50 split in the men’s and women’s classes. Mallory Franklin (GBR) qualified in first place with Andrea Herzog (GER) in second and Teresa Fiserova (CZE) in third.

In the men’s kayak (K1M) heats Hannes Aigner placed first with in Giovanni de Gennaro (ITA) second and Lucien Delfour (AUS) qualified in third.

The C1W semi-final displayed a wealth of talent in its first Olympic Games. Fox took the lead to qualify in first place followed by Fiserova and Ana Satila (BRA). Herzog qualified in fourth with Franklin in sixth. The Brit put down a great run in the final, with a time 2 seconds faster than the semi-finals to go into first place with five paddlers still to race. Satila and Delassus (FRA) were unable to go fast enough to compete with Franklin’s time going into tenth and third respectively. Herzog finished almost three seconds behind to go into second place with only Fox left to go. After a disappointing bronze medal in the K1W event a few days before she was after a gold to complete her collection. Fox has been at the forefront of woman’s C1 from many years and has been a big voice in getting it to the Olympics and fighting for gender equality. She was up on the splits the whole way down her run and stormed into first place over 3 seconds ahead of Franklin to finish her Games with a well-deserved gold medal.

The K1M semi-final left us with some unexpected finalists, with the reigning silver medallist from Rio not making the top 10. Jiri Prskavec (CZE) qualified first with a 2 second time penalty, France and America placed second and third with Jakub Grigar (SVK) in fourth and Hannes Aigner (GER) in seventh. The final was tense with the first few athletes picking up 2 second and 50 second time penalties. Aigner put down the leading time early in the final which no one was able to beat it until Grigar put down a flying run to go almost 3 seconds faster. Last to go was Prskavec, ranked number 1 in the world going into these games, he would have to go faster than his semi-final if he wanted the gold medal. His run was perfect the whole way down the white water, and he raced into first over 3 seconds ahead of Grigar, leaving the podium as Germany in third, Slovakia in second and Czech Republic in first.