Olympic aspirants Ian Borrows and Jessica Fox have set the early pace in the race for Olympic selection on the opening morning of racing at the Australian Open at Penrith Whitewater Stadium.
 
Borrows executed a clean run down the 20 gate course to safely finish inside the top 20 boats required to advance to the semi-final tomorrow in seventh.
 
The 26-year-old finished 3.23 seconds behind Slovakian Matej Benus who recorded the fastest opening run of 90.71.
 
Borrows was pleased with his start to the Australian Open.
 
“It was good. I was just looking to put down a good run as I didn’t want to have to do a second run today and I did that,” Borrows said.
 
“Now I am just going to wait around and see how it goes tomorrow.”
 
The 2014 Australian Open champion admitted to having a few more nerves than this time a year ago with this year’s event doubling as the first Olympic selection trial.
 
“Everyone has really stepped up their game in training this year and it is going to be really tight to see how everyone goes.”
 
“I am just looking forward to it but scared as well.”
 
Joining Borrows in Saturday’s semi-final will be fellow Australian’s Ethan Hodson, Robin Jeffery and Kynan Maley after they finished eighth, 12th and 19th respectively on their first runs.
 
Victorian Christian Fabris bounced back from a disappointing first run to record the seventh-fastest second run to make it five Australian men in tomorrow’s semi-final.
 
Borrows plans to approach the semi-final in the same manner as today’s heat.
 
“I will just try to get a good set and to make sure that I know what I am doing on the course and just to really try and do my best really. I cannot really change anything that I have done today so we will see how it goes,” Borrows said.
 
The women’s K1 heats were also contested on the opening morning with London Olympic silver medallist Jessica Fox recording the second fastest first run to advance to the semi-finals.
 
Her younger sister, Noemie Fox, finished 16th to also qualify for the semi-finals alongside Alison Borrows in 17th.
 
After initially missing out on qualifying on her first run, Rosalyn Lawrence bounced back to record the fastest second run of 103.87 to make it four Australian women into the semi-final tomorrow.
 
The K1M and C2M heats are still to come this afternoon.

Selection puzzle

At last year’s World Championships, Australia’s C1 men failed to secure an Olympic quota but will get a chance to do exactly that at the Oceania Championships which will follow the Australian Open in Penrith from the 19 to 21 February.
 
Assuming our men are successful in securing a C1 quota, the selection process will work exactly the same as the other disciplines, with selection trial one to take place at the Australian Open.
 
For more information please click here.