Cardiff Day 1 Review – C1M, C1W & K1M

John Gregory, @gregiej | Sportscene - The sun shone in the Welsh capital today for the start of the 2013 World Cup series. The Cardiff International Whitewater Centre is a fabulous Olympic standard race site to kick of the World Cup series for the second year in succession.

Friday’s race format consisted of qualification heats and semi-finals in the C1M, C1W and K1M. The single run finals of these classes take place on Saturday morning starting at 10.45m with forerunners. The starting 38 C1M were cut to 30 heading into the semi-final with only 10 making the Saturday final. In C1W the top 20 progressed from heats to final, which actually turned out to be the whole field and then 10 made the cut to the final. In K1M 57 starters became 40 in the semi-final and 10 head to the final.

Day 1 Heats – C1M, C1W & K1M

The course for the heats consisted of 23 gates, with 6 red and white upstream gates designed by Gareth Wilson (GBR) and Jean-Yves Prigent. In the heats paddlers had two runs down the course with the faster of the two being counted for the qualification. The catapult drop above gate 18 proved costly for many paddlers as the water under the gate really boils and was unpredictable. It was anticipated that some of the top ranked paddlers would miss their 2nd run and save their energy for the semi-final, which indeed turned out to be the case. 

Overall official placings in the heats were:

C1M - 1st Sideris Tasiadis (GER) 91.39 seconds, 2nd Benjamin Savsek (SLO) +0.5 seconds, 3rd Denis Gargaud Chanut (FRA) +1.07 seconds behind the leader.

C1W - 1st Mallory Franklin (GBR) 115.80 seconds, 2nd Rosalyn Lawrence (AUS) + 3.53 seconds, 3rd Lena Stoecklin (GER) + 4.57 seconds behind the leader.

K1M - 1st Vavrinec Hradilek (CZE) 85.00 seconds, 2nd Fabian Doerfler (GER) + 1.93 seconds, 3rd Martin Halcin (SVK) +2.59 seconds behind the leader. There were no changes in the top 6 paddlers after first runs. Lucien Delfour (AUS) had the biggest improvement making up for his 50 second penalty in his first run and putting himself 7th in qualification. 

The surprises were seeing both Eoin Rheinisch (IRL) who had been 4th in Beijing and 14th in London and 1999 World Champion David Ford (CAN) in fail to make the K1M semi-final.

Day 1 Semi-finals

Friday evening’s semi-finals consisted of a single run on a new course with the top 10 in each class progressing to the final Saturday morning in Cardiff Bay.

The new 2013 European K1M Champion Jiri Prskavec provided a master class in K1M for anyone who was watching on how to negotiate this tricky 24 gate course again designed by Gareth Wilson (GBR) and Jean-Yves Prigent (FRA). Each of the semi-finals resulted in a different winner than in the heats; with the earlier heat winners of Sideris Tasiadis (GER) in C1M and Mallory Franklin (GBR) in C1W did enough to make the finals. Most surprising was to see the Olympic silver medalist Vavrinec Hradilek from the Czech Republic failing to make the cut for the final.

Official semi-final results are:

C1M - 1st David Florence (GBR) 91.79 seconds, 2nd Matej Benus (SVK) +2.11 seconds, 3rd Stanislav Jezek (CZE) +2.90 seconds behind the leader.

Notably, there are no boats in the C1M final from outside Europe. The surprises from today who didn’t make the finals were Alexander Slafkovsky (SVK) world ranked number 2 and Denis Gargaud Chanut (FRA) the current World Champion.

The C1M finalists in the order in which they will race the final will be Sideris Tasiadis (GER), Mark Proctor (GBR), Luka Bozic (SLO), Jan Benzien (GER), Killian Foulon (FRA), Franz Anton (GER), Michal Jane (CZE), Stanislav Jezek (CZE), Matej Benus (SVK) and David Florence (GBR) off last.

Looking to the final silver medalist Sideris Tasiadis from Germany was on sensational form at Lee Valley last summer and showed similar consistency with another silver at the European Championships earlier this month. David Florence was the winner of the C1M race here in 2012 and his semi-final run suggests he could repeat that form on this course. Florence is the top ranked 3 in the World and is the top ranked paddler left in the C1M competition.

C1W - 1st Jessica Fox (AUS) 115.80 seconds, 2nd Monika Jancova (CZE) +2.52 seconds, 3rd Caroline Loir (FRA) + 5.08 seconds behind the leader.

Penalties proved a key problem for many of the C1W particular on the very tough gate 22-24 sequence, with 15, 50-second penalties incurred on the lower part of the semi-final course.  

The C1W finalists in the order in which they will race the final will be Kimberley Woods (GBR), Ros Lawrence (AUS), Alison Borrows (AUS), Katarina Macova (SVK), Lena Stoecklin (GER), Mallory Franklin (GBR), Katerina Hoskova (CZE), Caroline Loir (FRA), Monika Jancova (CZE) and Jessica Fox (AUS).

Australia has always been a strong nation for C1W starting their own national C1W championships before it became a World Cup event and the fact that they have 3 boats in the final is testament to this early adoption and experience.

Looking to the final, Ros Lawrence was the winner both of last year’s Cardiff World Cup as well as the overall 2012 World Cup. Caroline Loir proved herself earlier this month with a win at the European Championships. Also in the mix we have the current World Champion Katerina Hoskova.

K1M - 1st Jiri Prskavec (CZE) in 86.16 seconds clear, 2nd Lucien Delfour (AUS) + 0.64 seconds, 3rd Sebastian Schubert (GER) + 1.07 seconds behind the leader. Sebastien Schubert was the winner of the 2012 World Cup race here in Cardiff. There were none of the three GBR paddlers who managed to advance from the semi-final to the final.

The K1M finalists in order of their run for the final will be Helmet Oblinger (AUT), Dariusz Popiela (POL), Fabian Doerfler (GER), Pavel Eygel (RUS), Hannes Aigner (GER), Fabien Lefevre (USA), Peter Kauzer (SLO), Sebastien Schubert (GER), Lucien Delfour (AUS) and Jiri Prskavec (CZE).

Jiri Prskavec was the quickest paddler of the day in the semi-finals with 86.16 seconds. His run was truly sensational with gate 14 negotiated in one single stroke movement. He maintained the pace on the lower section of the course to comfortably take the lead.

Looking to the final on Saturday morning, Peter Kauzer (SLO) is the former World Champion from 2009. The K1M field is also opened up through the surprise exits of overall 2012 World Cup champion Etienne Daille (FRA) and Olympic silver medalist Vavrinec Hradilek. Only three of the 12 KIM Olympians racing here in Cardiff made the cut! Former double world champion and Beijing Olympic silver medallist Fabien Lefevre should not be discounted.

Saturday June 22nd

The day starts with the C1M, C1W and K1M finals followed by prize giving. The heats and semi-finals of the K1W and C2 classes take place. Again, Sportscene will be tweeting live @gregiej and using #CanoeCardiff2013. The team will be on hand conducting interviews and writing the day 2 race report.

More than 800 tickets have been sold for the Cardiff World Cup race and it is very much hoped more spectators will come out into the weekend. Both Sky and Eurosport are onsite for their own live broadcasts.

Download Friday results

For all relevant links, start lists, tweets and information about the World Cup in Cardiff:  www.sportscene.tv/liveresults