International Canoe Federation

There are a number of Slalom specialists here in this group. The most obvious is Junior World Champion, Jessica Fox. Talking after her time trial where she paddled the fastest time she said, “it's hard, harder without the whitewater. At first I thought it was a short course but at over 90 seconds it's actually quite long and on flatwater you can't use the water to push you. The whitewater is good because it can make or break the race. But this is fun because it's different.”

Also looking good in the Time Trials was Slovenia's Ajda Novak and Austria's Viktoria Wolffhardt. In Canoe Sprint Novak was knocked out in Round 3 so she just missed out on the Quarter finals, as did fellow athlete, Jessica Fox. We can expect the opposite of these girls over the next couple of days. Wolffhardt, on the other hand didn't make it out of the Time Trials on Saturday's Canoe Sprint day, she capsized and therefore didn't go through. This is the first time we've seen her compete at the YOG.

Round One saw Viktoria Wolffhardt paddle the fastest time, beating her opponent Valentina Barrera (ARG). After the repechage, going out of the Women's K1 were gold and silver medal winners from Canoe Sprint, Ramona Farkasdi (HUN) and Jieyi Huang (CHN) whose win in her repechage heat just wasn't fast enough to make it to Round 3.

Another Canoe Sprint athlete who was knocked out at the repechage stage was Elena Monleon of Spain told the ICF, “I tried my best but there are many girls here who are professionals in Slalom and it's impossible for me!”

We asked her what she liked about Canoe Slalom, she replied, “I like the fact that you have to think about what you have to do, it's not just paddle paddle paddle, you have to think about what you have to do and you need to practice and practice and practice. You have to go fast and then stop and think, do it, then sprint again... Here you have to have good endurance to be able to stop and start again, your arms get tired but you have to keep your head and give it your best.”

About her preparation for the race, Elena continued, “Before the race I tried to visualise the place where I have to go fast, where I have to stop. When I was on the ramp and waiting to start I closed my eyes and tried to think about how I am going to do my best, always when you plan it doesn't happen exactly how you think but it's good to have it planned to not be surprised. You have to be realistic, know who you are, and I know that I am a Sprint athlete competing in Slalom, I can't expect to be the best as it's not my thing.”

In the third round, Jessica Fox (AUS), Viktoria Wolffhardt (AUS) and Pavlina Zasterova (CZE) all paddled strong races bringing them straight to tomorrow's quarter finals.

Just as with the Women's K1 class, the Canoe Sprint winners are today's losers. Mexico's Pedro Castaneda, bronze medalist in Sunday's final, was disqualified for wrong negotiation of the course, taking him out of the double medal run. Gold medal winner, Cardenas Sacerio of Cuba was, by contrast, 11th fastest this morning and was knocked out in Round 3. Perhaps the best crossover so far is Ukraine's Anatolii Melnyk. After winning silver on Sunday, he was also the fourth fastest in the morning's Time Trials. By the end of the day, he had the third fastest time in the Canoe Slalom.

At the other end of the scale we see Xiaodong Wang, the fastest qualifier. In Canoe Sprint, Wang was knocked out in Round Three. Germany's Dennis Soeter, out in the repechage in Sprint, had the second fastest time in both the Time Trial and in Round 3. Hayden Daniels, also out in the Canoe Sprint repechage, was third fastest going into the first round and by the end of the day was fourth fastest.

Going to the quarter-finals, the ones to look out for are Wang, Soeter, Melnyk and Daniels.

Top of the Men's K1 Time Trials this morning was Simon Brus (SLO) and Guillaume Bernis (FRA), a change of fortunes for these Canoe Slalom specialists who were knocked out in Round 3 of the Canoe Sprint competition. Third fastest was Slovakia's Miroslav Urban, an even bigger change of fortunes for him as he was out at the Repechage stage of Canoe Sprint.

Sunday's Canoe Sprint winners, didn't fare too badly in the Time Trials. Silver medalist, Tom Liebscher, was 19th fastest (out of 24) and gold medalist, Sandor Totka posted a respectable 13th fastest time. The best of the Sprinters however, was Scott Smith of Australia, he posted the 5th fastest time this morning.

In the repechage, Boris Nedyalkov of Bulgaria capsized, giving his opponent (and Canoe Sprint gold medal winner) Totka a free ticket to Round 3. Boris told the ICF, “I tried Slalom for the first time here and I think it's good but I'm not like the other Slalom guys here. The Sprint course is not difficult for me because I train only Sprint, but for the Slalom athletes I think Canoe Sprint was difficult...” he continued, “I've had a lot of fun and met a lot of new friends here and I'm proud to be here.”

Also in the repechage, the Russian Kalashnikov, racing against the Cameroon athlete, perhaps didn't realise the 5 fastest times went through to Round 3. In a display of superb sportsmanship, he waited for his opponent to cross the line together. It may have cost him a second chance but such is the spirit of these Games.

Going to the quarter-finals tomorrow are all the favourites: Simon Brus (SLO), Jiri Prskavec (CZE) and Slovakia's Miroslav Urban. The local fans were delighted to see their boy, Brandon Ooi post the sixth fastest time of the afternoon. He will be up against France's Guillaume Bernis tomorrow.