Oceania clean sweep for canoe slalom paddlers

NSWIS athletes have helped Australia claim victory in all four boat classes at the 2020 Oceania Canoe Slalom Championships in Auckland, making it a clean sweep for the Australian team.

Just six months out from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the Institute’s representatives took home three of Australia’s four gold medals with Jessica Fox claiming the K1 and C1 women’s double, and Lucien Delfour taking out the men’s K1 event.

Fox showed her class by finishing the C1 final with a clean run in a time of 107.52, 5.08 seconds clear of Andorra’s Monica Doria Vilarrubla in second place.

“It was one of those runs that felt like a battle that I fought hard,” the C1 Champion said after claiming victory. “The boat was running and I pulled off the moves that I was trying to do so I’m really stoked with that run.”

 

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Great to battle it out in #auckland for the Oceania Championships at @vectorwero ! Enjoyed being on this course again and racing here with some great results in K1 & C1; thanks for having us @canoeslalomnz – catch you in Aus for the rematch @dscribernz

A post shared by Jessica Fox (@jessfox94) on Feb 3, 2020 at 1:28am PST

Fellow NSWIS competitor Noemie Fox also competed in the C1 final, just missing out on the podium in fourth position. In the K1 final, the reigning world cup champion held off Rio silver medallist Luuka Jones (NZ), finishing just 0.49 seconds in front of her trans-tasman rival.

In the men’s events, NSWIS’ Lucien Delfour completed a blistering run in 85.76 seconds, which would be enough to take home the Oceania Championship.

“I was definitely nervous at the start of the race because I felt like I was not quite comfortable enough but I surprised myself in the final,” said Delfour.

“This was the first time at a race here that we’ve had such a tough field and such a hard race.”

Meanwhile, in the C1 men’s event, Ian Borrows added a bronze medal to Australia’s five-medal haul.