French and Slovakian athletes dominated the first run of the Men's C1 at the Australian Open Canoe/Kayak slalom competition at Penrith's Whitewater Stadium on Friday.

France and Slovakia dominate first run of Men's C1
French and Slovakian athletes dominated the first run of the Men's C1 at the Australian Open Canoe/Kayak slalom competition at Penrith's Whitewater Stadium on Friday. Denis Gargaud-Chanut of France led the field by 1.60 seconds, ahead of Slovakia's Matej Benus, with Tony Estanguet (FRA) in third place and Alexander Slavkofsky (SVK) in fourth. Australia's Robin Jeffrey and Kynan Maley were in 9th and 10th places.

Olympic silver medallist  David FLORENCE (GBR) was in 20th position after picking up four penalty points. After the second run, the top 30 athletes will qualify for Saturday's semi finals.

European power houses dominate Men's C2
World Champion silver medallists Fabien Lefevre and Denis Gargaud-Chanut dominated the first run of the Men's C2 Slalom qualifying, finishing two seconds ahead of Slovakian cousins Peter and Ladislav Skantar. France's Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Peche finished third with a time of 107.45.

Beijing Silver medallist duo Jaroslav Volf and Ondrej Stepanek of the Czech Republic had a disappointing first run after being penalised 50 seconds and finished with a time of 158.24. Australian C2 duo Robin Jeffrey and Kynan Maley also had a disappointing run after rolling at the beginning of the course, and finished in 18th place with a time of 128.70. After the second run, the top 20 pairs will move through to Saturday's semi-final.

Jessica Fox starts in top form
Australian young gun Jessica Fox has started her campaign in fine form by topping the field in the first heat of qualifying for the Women's K1 Kayak Single. Up against a star studded line-up, including current World Champion Corinna Kuhnle (AUT), the 16-year-old Australian recorded a time of 106.72, just over half a second faster than Germany's Stepanka Hilgertova.

The 2010 Youth Olympic gold medallist and current Junior World Champion, Fox will be looking to continue her good form into the second run and then in the Women's C1 event later on Friday. Fox will also be competing against fellow Australians Katrina Lawrence, Rosalyn Lawrence and Sarah Grant for one of three spots up for grabs in the Australian team for the World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia in September.

Men's C1 Qualifying Round WRAP
France's Denis Gargaud-Chanut has kept the pressure on the rest of the field after qualifying fastest for Saturday's semi finals. Gargaud-Chanut had a flawless first run to set the time to beat of 96.84s, which was enough to earn top spot, as he suffered an eight second penalty on the second run. "I was surprised at first that I won because I had a good (first) run, but not something special or exceptional. I was happy with the video I saw and the technique I used," he said.

"I'm going to take this race as training. I decided to do the second run, but the second one was quite artificial so I had problems staying focussed. Aside from that, I'm okay; I feel good on the water, and I'm just looking forward to tomorrow," Gargaud-Chanut said. Alexander Slafkovsky of Slovakia finished second in the qualification, followed by Stanislav Jezek of the Czech Republic and Matej Benus (SVK). "The other guys have been paddling here for months," Slafkovsky said. "The season has just started for me so I'm not really prepared for this race."

Third placed Jezek said the favourites for the event at Penrith were Tony Estanguet (FRA), Alexander Slafkovsky (SVK), David Florence (GBR) and Matej Benus (SVK). "You never know who will have a good day. There are another five or six guys who could come first or second tomorrow," Jezek said. "I think (my) result is much better than I expected because I came to Australia for preparation for the winter season, so this time at the beginning of my European summer preparation. I thought my result would be 10th or 15th place, so so far it's good," he said.

"I was here at this venue for the first time in 1999. I like this course because I think it's still the best one for our sport in the world. It's not too difficult but it's not too easy. It's not dangerous but it's difficult and you have to find the right streams and nice eddies." The best placed Australia was Robin Jeffery, who finished in 12th place, just ahead of Ian Borrows and Kynan Maley.

The top 30 paddlers from Friday have qualified for Saturday's semi finals.