Lucien Delfour leads the K1 men’s chase for Australian Olympic team selection after he produced a sizzling semi-final run at the Australian Open in Penrith.
 
Under immense pressure, Delfour held his composure beautifully, producing a clean run of 91.03 to finish third in the semi-final and take the first of three selection trial wins.
 
Delfour later went on to finish sixth in the final, 3.03 seconds behind Vit Prindis of the Czech Republic who won in 89.65.
 
Despite being a little disappointed to not feature on the podium, Delfour was pleased with his start to 2016.
 
“Absolutely, I have been training really well and I was pleased I was able to perform. It is a big relief.” Delfour said.
 
Delfour admitted that it is a fine line when considering his approach to the semi-final.
 
“It is always tricky. I think the idea was to race the semi-final and to just do the best possible and to not do anything too risky but at the same time not to be too defensive,” Delfour said.
 
Delfour admits he will have to take more risks in his approach to the second and third selection trials at the Oceania Championships from 19 to 21 February.
 
“I think it is going to be a little bit different because the heats will count this time and because we have two runs I think the athletes will have to attack a bit more so I would say not as safe for sure,” Delfour said.
 
Tasmanian Daniel Watkins and Victorian Timothy Anderson finished second and third respectively in the first Olympic selection trial.
 
They finished 24th and 25th overall.