Day 2 - 2011 Australian Open Canoe Slalom

Reigning men's world C1 Canoe Slalom champion Tony Estanguet of France set the pace and threw out a huge challenge to his rivals with a clear win in the semi final of the Australian Open Canoe/Kayak slalom competition at Penrith's today.

Tony takes C1 gold
His time was 1.47 seconds faster than Ander Elosegi of Spain, and qualified him in top place for the 10-man final. Estanguet later went on to win the final and was the final paddler in the 10-man field and whipped past the time set by Ander Elosegi of Spain to win with a clean round of 103.68 seconds. In third place was Estanguet's teammate Denis Gargaud-Chanut.

China's Asian Games gold medallists qualify for Canoe Slalom finals
Asian Games gold medallists Hu Minghai and Shu Junrong of China caused a surprise by qualifying fastest for the final of the men's canoe doubles slalom. The Chinese pair, who came 9th at the world championships last year, finished last year in 13th place in the world rankings. Their time of 114.53 was only 0.36 seconds ahead of raging favourites Fabien Lefèvre and Denis Gargaud-Chanut of France, and Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Peche.

Kuhnle claims victory in Women's Kayak final
Austria's world champion Corinna Kuhnle showed her class by claiming victory in the women's kayak slalom final. She blitzed the field with a time of 110.91 seconds, but incurred a two second penalty for touching a gate and finished in 112.91, but was still 2.30 seconds ahead of Germany's Jasmin Schornberg. Rosalyn Lawrence claimed third place, ahead of her sister Kate. Pre-race favourite and fastest qualifier for the final, Jessica Fox, suffered four seconds in penalties and finished in 5th place.

Skantars survive scare in Penrith
Slovakia's cousins Peter and Ladislav Skantar survived a last gasp scare from the Chinese paddlers to claim victory in the men's canoe slalom doubles. The Slovaks recorded a blistering time of 112.62, without any penalty, and were watching with the rest of the crowd as the Chinese Asian Games gold medalists Hu Minghai and Shu Junrong powered down the course as the last of the 10 pairs of paddlers.

Major upset for the Chinese but another gold for France

The Chinese were headed for a major upset when they came unstuck at the last gate, getting trapped in the swirling water before they could dig themselves out to finish in 9th place. Second place went to Great Britain's Timothy Baillie and Etienne Stott, 1.12 seconds behind the Skantars, with Jaroslav Volf and Ondrej Stepanek of the Czech Republic claiming third.

Reigning men's world canoe slalom champion Tony Estanguet of France also won the final of the men's canoe slalom, helping his country win two places on the podium. Estanguet paddled a perfect circuit in 103.66 seconds, 1.18 seconds ahead of world number 19 Ander Elosegi (ESP). In third place was Frenchman Denis Gargaud-Chanut.

"Everything for me began in 2000 (Sydney Olympic Games) at this course, so 2011 is off to a really good start," Estanguet said. "The course was really demanding. I wasn't exactly well prepared, so it was really good to come through in the end."

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