France once again emphasised its dominance of canoe/kayak slalom when its paddlers grabbed first and second place after the heats of the Men's C2 at the Australian Open Canoe/Kayak slalom competition at Penrith's today.

Men's C2 Qualifying Round WRAP
France once again emphasised its dominance of canoe/kayak slalom when its paddlers grabbed first and second place after the heats of the Men's C2. The duo of Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Peche paddled into first place in their second run with a time of 102.93, improving on their first run by 5 seconds. Their C2 teammates, Fabien Lefèvre and Denis Gargaud-Chanut, chose not to compete in their second run, but qualified into second place with their first run time of 105.31. The C2-Team 2009 World Champions, Slovakian cousins Peter and Ladislav Skantar, qualified into the semi finals in third place. 

Klauss said he was happy with the heats, and was looking forward to the rest of the weekend. "It was a good race today. The first run was good, but the second one was better than the first, so I'm happy," he said. "I think the podium is really possible for us [this weekend]."

Slovakia's Skantar said the second run was not as good as he had hoped, but his main focus was on the rest of the weekend and the year ahead. "The second run was bad because we had a penalty and there were some mistakes. Tomorrow will be important to us because there are the semi finals and the finals," he said.

"[This year] we have four World Cups. It will be different because we have selections for the Olympic Games and the World Championship in Bratislava [Slovakia]. I think we will be strong [in Bratislava] because it is home for us."

Two of Australia's C2 pairs qualified for semi finals, with Robin Jeffrey and Kynan Maley, and Christian Fabris and Joey Croft making the cut.

Women's K1 Qualifying Round WRAP
A faultless second round run has catapulted Slovenia's Ursa Kragelj into fastest qualifying position after the heats of the Women's single kayak slalom at the Australian Open at Penrith's Whitewater Stadium on Friday. Her run of 105.51 seconds bettered her first run by almost eight seconds, and pushed her into first place ahead of five-time Olympian Stepanka Hilgertova of the Czech Republic, and Australia's rising star Jessica Fox. Kragelj recorded a time of 105.51 to finish ahead of Hilgertova (106.62) and Fox, whose first run of 106.62 put her in third position overall.

Having only just begun training for the year, Kragelj said she wasn't expecting to qualify fastest. "We were just having a break before this race so I was just taking it like training, which was good because I wasn't really nervous and I normally usually get nervous before the race," she said.

"The top part of the first heat was good but then I lost some time near the end, but in the second round I managed to make it up at the end even though I wasn't too good in the first part so I'm happy about it."

For Hilgertova the event is also a chance to begin training for the rest of the season, including the World Championships in Slovakia in September. "I know about my mistakes so I can improve on them but I am here in Australia mostly for the training," she said.

"I'll do my best but a lot of work is in front of me," she said. _For Australia's Fox, who is the only Junior to qualify for the finals, the event has more significance as it acts as a selection trial for the national team. With three spots available, Fox is in a good position to secure a place with two more selection events to come.

"Hopefully I can paddle well and do what I know how to do and get selected, but we'll see how it goes," she said. Women's K1 action continues on Saturday with the semi finals.

Men's K1 Qualifying Run 1, top ranked paddlers show off their stuff
A glittering array of former and reigning world champions and Olympic medallists created a bottleneck at the top of the leader board after the first round of the Men's Kayak Single Slalom competition.

Slovenia's former World Champion Peter Kauzer completed a clean first run in a time of 92.00 seconds to edge out Olympic silver medallist Fabien Lefèvre (FRA) who clocked up a time of 93.73 seconds. In third place was Austria's Helmut Oblinger.

Reigning world champion and current world number one Daniele Molmenti (ITA) began his first run solidly, but struggled towards the end of the course. He faltered around the final three gates and finished with a time of 97.04 in 16th place.

The best placed Australian was William Forsyth, who was the only paddler in the top 20 to register a points penalty, which pushed him down to 13th place. After the second run, the top 30 paddlers will move through to the semi finals.