John Gregory | @gregiej | Sportscene - The World Cup series final in Bratislava delivered some sensational fast runs in the final and new World Cup champions in each of the 5 classes. Congratulations.

Overall World Cup Rankings

Click here to the full official ICF ranking.

Last year’s World Cup Champions (2012) were Alexander Slafkovsky (SVK), Rosalyn Lawrence (AUS), Etienne Daille (FRA), Ursa Kragelj (SLO) Pierre Labarelle & Nicolas Peschier (FRA) in the five classes respectively.

Again both Jessica Fox (AUS) and Gauthier Klauss & Matthieu Peche (FRA) finished on the podiums in their respective C1W and C2 classes and deserve the World Cup titles. The World Cup is a unique event requiring sustained consistency through 5 sets of heats, semi-finals and finals at five different venues. This year’s series at Cardiff, Augsburg, Seu d’Urgell, Tacen and Bratislava did not disappoint. We did not have the distraction of the Olympics so overall saw a much more complete field in the World Cup series.

Jessica Fox is the only paddler to have been on the podium at all five world cup races this season, of which four were wins in C1W, one silver and not forgetting a gold in K1W in Tacen.

Could we be witnessing a resurgence in the French C2 class? We have to go back to Frank Adisson & Wilfrid Forgues (1991 and 1997) for the last C2 Gold at Senior World Championships. The last French C2 medals at World’s were silver for Denis Gargaud Chanut & Fabien Lefevre in both 2010 and 2011. The last four World Championships were won by Pavol & Peter Hochschorner.

As expected the World Cup series came down to the very last run in each of C1M, K1W and K1M classes.

Summary Bratislava winners of heats, semi-final and final

All winning runs in the semi-final and finals in all classes were clear (no penalties). With the exception of the K1M the finals in each of the other four classes were all quicker than the semi-finals.

Medal Table (from individual race events)

Slovakia led the table at their home World Cup race with the most medals and golds.

Cumulative Medal Table (from individual race events)

France tops the medal table from the individual classes from the 5 World Cup races, with five golds and nine medals in total. Germany and the UK took home 14 and 11 medals respectively.

Bratislava World Cup C1M final medal positions

This was Michal Martikan’s first major international race of 2013. As he has prepared for World’s in Prague this has not included Europeans or World Cup series until this weekend’s final. It proves to Michal and us that he is still very much competitive.

Dan Goddard tweeted how he had missed watching Martikan’s superb edge control this year.

Takuya Handea, 26, (JPN) continues to show improvement with 4th in the semi-final and then 7th in the final, almost matching his 5th in Augsburg. Ian Borrows (AUS) had his season personal best with 11th, just missing out on the cut for the final.

Bratislava World Cup C1W final medal positions

Rosalyn Lawrence had a strong performance winning both heat and semi-final. However, with penalties in the final she was unable to translate this to a podium finish.

Jessica Fox dominance of C1W continues with podiums in each of the first four races. Her win in the final is all the more impressive given her 4 seconds of penalties.

We saw strong race performances from Jasmine Royle (GBR), another personal best from Anna Ingier (POL), Ana Satlia (BRA) and Eilidh Gibson (GBR) 11th in her first World Cup race.

Bratislava World Cup K1M final medal positions

Michal Smolen (USA) won the Friday heat in style and going last in the semi he was unable to repeat the form and advance to the final. Sebastian Schubert was then fast and clear in his semi-final with the fastest run of the weekend 97.13.

Peter Kauzer was on excellent form again this weekend after his exceptional win in Tacen. 31 year old former World Champion Fabien Lefevre (USA) is also on form this year, 7th in Bratislava after 5th in Seu and bronze in Cardiff.

We saw strong race performances from Zdenek Ornst (CZE) and personal best for Ben Hayward (CAN). In contrast Fabian Doerfler (GER) who had made the previous four World Cup finals could do no better than 19th in the semi-final.

Bratislava World Cup K1W final medal positions

Emilie Fer’s final run was utterly sensational and 3.25 is a very significant winning margin. She had been third in the semi-final behind team-mate Marie-Zelia Lafont.

Jessica Fox leading the World Cup coming into the World Cup final secured fourth going into the Bratislava final but was unable to stay clean and ended up down a lowly 9th place.

We saw strong performance again from Marie-Zelia Lafont (FRA), Sarah Grant (AUS) and Ricarda Funk (GER). It was a career personal best from Ashley Nee (USA). Meanwhile it was surprising to see both Solvenian’s Eva Tercelj after podium finish with gold in Seu and bronze in Tacen as well as Ursa Kragelj who failed to make it through to the final.

Bratislava World Cup C2M final medal positions

Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Peche were unable to make it four consecutive wins as again Pavol & Peter Hochschorner on their home course were on form for the final.

After previous progression to the final both Schroeder/ Henze and Anton/ Benzien from Germany failed to make it through in Bratislava. 

Slovakia advanced three boats to the final on their home course. Skantar/ Skantar won the semi-final, Hochschorner/ Hochschorner won the final and Kucera/Batik finished with their highest placing in 4th.

Overall individual category percentages

The Bratislava race showed all four classes much closer to the K1M than at the other venues. All four winners (Martikan, Fox, Fer & Hochschoner/Hochschorner) flew down the course and won by a significant margin in each case.

Country medal table by class

Where the first number is brackets above refers to total medals and second number refers to number of gold so (5,2) would represent five medals of which two are gold. It demonstrates Australia’s dominance in C1W with five medals, four of which were gold, Germany’s current strength in K1M with 7 medals of which five are gold and France’s resurgence in C2 with 5 medals of which three are gold. Australia is the only non-European country above to feature.

Bratislava Team Events

So what does all this really mean?

We have seen some sensational runs from the older masters and rising stars. The ICF Canoe Slalom Senior World Championships in Prague are now a mere 17 days away. Can the defending champions retain their titles, Denis Gargaud Chanut, Katerina Hoskova, Peter Kauzer, Corinna Kuhnle and Pavol & Peter Hochschorner? Or how will the new Olympic Champions Daniele Molmenti and Emilie Fer fair on Troja course? 

Read my World’s preview in two weeks. The Sportscene Team will be there reporting live. It will be an incredible event to witness.

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