Jessica Fox wrapped up an incredible fifth consecutive kayak world cup championship title and Raffaello Ivaldi won his second world cup gold for the season on the first day of finals at the ICF Slalom World Cup final in Paris on Friday.
The 2023 season finale confirmed the dominance of Australia’s Fox, adding a third world cup gold to the world title she won in Lee Valley a fortnight earlier. A K1 Olympic gold medal is the one major medal that has eluded her, having picked up silver in London and bronze at both Rio and Tokyo.
“It’s been an awesome season and a great sign of consistency when you win the overall title,” Fox said.
“I really enjoyed racing here, which is a good sign I think. It’s been a long season, what I learned from Tokyo is you can’t have a perfect preparation leading into an Olympics, you have to be adaptable.
“I definitely felt the pressure leading into Tokyo, so I’m sure it will be quite similar. But it’s a privilege and an honour to represent Australia and to have that opportunity on the world stage at the Olympic Games, when so many in our sport don’t get that opportunity.”
Austrian veteran Corinna Kuhnle finished second behind Fox to celebrate her first podium since 2019, while Poland’s Klaudia Zwolinska followed her bronze at the world championships with another bronze on Friday.
In the men’s C1 final an emotional Raffaello Ivaldi won his second world cup gold for the season with a fault-free run to edge out Germany’s Franz Anton and Spain’s Miquel Trave. Ivaldi spoke after the race of the battle he had emotionally after a disappointing performance at last month’s world championships.
“The worlds were really bad, it was a really hard time for me, but the support around me was amazing – my dad, my mum, my grandma, my brother, my family and friends – the support was amazing,” Ivaldi said.
“They helped me so much to get back, and now I’m back on the top, it feels amazing. I felt the energy today, I felt confident, I went all in so I’m happy. I am happy after the worlds I didn’t end with my mind, I cam back in a good shape.
“I still had a lot of energy, but now I am wasted, I gave everything so now I am just happy to enjoy some holidays.”
Ivaldi’s gold medals in La Seu and Paris leapfrogged him to third on the overall world cup standings, with Slovenia’s Luka Bozic just pipping Slovakia’s Matej Benus by two points for the overall title.
“Last year I think I had even better results during the whole season, but then I lost the last race, so this year I had one win and a second place in La Seu and fourth here today,” Bozic said.
“Sometimes you need to have luck, I didn’t have luck in previous years so I’m really happy to have had some luck today. The start to my season was not really good, but the second part I felt really good. When I look back, I wanted more at the world championships, but I’m still going to fight next year for the Olympic spot, and we will see.”
In the women’s K1, Fox was a runaway winner, from Germany’s Elena Lilik and Poland’s Klaudia Zwolinska.
There were several surprises during the afternoon racing, with former German world champion Elena Lilik and Brazilian Olympian Ana Satila among the big names not to progress to Saturday’s women’s C1 semi-finals. Czech Gabriela Satkova posted the quickest time, ahead of Australia’s Jessica Fox.
In the men’s K1 Slovakia’s Jakub Grigar posted the quickest qualifying time, ahead of France’s Titouan Castryck and Australia’s Timothy Anderson. Among the big names to miss out were Frenchman Boris Neveu, Spain’s David Llorente and Spain’s Miquel Trave.
RESULTS
PARIS WORLD CUP FINAL
WOMEN’S K1 FINAL
- FOX Jessica (AUS) 100.78 (2 seconds in penalties)
- KUHNLE Corinna (AUT) 102.37 (0)
- ZWOLINSKA Klaudia (POL) 102.73 (0)
MEN’S C1 FINAL
- IVALDI Raffaello (ITA) 95.50 (0)
- ANTON Franz (GER) 96.18 (0)
- TRAVE Miquel (ESP) 83 (0)
OVERALL 2023 WORLD CUP FINAL STANDINGS
WOMEN’S K1
- FOX Jessica (AUS) 308 points
- LILIK Elena (GER) 277
- ZWOLINSKA Klaudia (POL) 262
MEN’S C1
- BOZIC Luka (SLO) 270
- BENUS Matej (SVK) 268
- IVALDI Raffaello (ITA) 257
Pics by Damiano Benedetto
