There were twists and turns on the final day of the Australian Open Canoe/Kayak Slalom competition at Penrith's Whitewater Stadium on Sunday.

Delfour qualified fastest for Men's K1 final
Australia's Lucien Delfour qualified fastest for the final of the Men's Kayak Slalom Australian Open final after a powerful run on Sunday morning. As the temperature hit 32 degrees Celcius, and with a background cacophony of cicadas at the beautiful Penrith Whitewater Stadium, Delfour set a perfect time of 101.62 seconds to head Germany's Sebastian Schubert by 0.61 seconds, with Slovenia's Peter Kauzer in third place.

Australia had three competitors in the final, after both William Forsythe and Warwick Draper qualified and World champion Daniele Molmenti of Italy qualified in 9th position, setting a blistering time of 100.88 but incurring four penalty seconds on his run. Olympic silver medallist Fabien Lefèvre of France could only manage 18th place in 40-man semi final field and failed to qualify.

It's a victory for Great Britain in K1 final
Campbell Walsh (GBR)
In the end it was Great Britain's Campbell Walsh that took victory in the final of the Men's K1 Slalom.  In the continued scorching conditions at the Penrith Whitewater Stadium, Walsh recorded a clean run of 101.53 seconds to edge Australia's William Forsythe by 0.55 seconds. Third place went to Slovenia's Peter Kauzer. World Champion Daniele Molmenti of Italy finished in 5th place. He said he was happy with his result, and it was a good start to the 2011 season.

"I had in mind that 101 [seconds] would be a good time for me, and I got it so I'm happy with my result. As always, there are improvements to be made," he said. "To be honest, I've done very little preparation so I'm happy with it. I can only get better."

Australia won its first placing in the Men's events when William Forsythe took out second place. Forsythe was slower in the top half of the course, but pulled strength in the latter half to finish with a time of 102.08. "I'm really happy everything came together today. I found the relaxed rhythm I've been working on in training," he said.

"It's a very impressive field, so it's a good result. I've got a lot of training to do and so do [the other athletes] so we'll match up again at the World Championships."

Ros Lawrence claims final
Australia's Jessica Fox had lined herself up to make amends for the disappointment of Saturday's racing, by qualifying fastest for the Women's Canoe Slalom Open final. On Sunday she incurred two penalty seconds for touching one date, but still set a gap over her nearest rival of almost nine seconds, with Rosalyn Lawrence in second place and Alison Borrows in third. Eight of the qualified were Australian and two from New Zealand.

In the finals it was Lawrence who set the blistering time of 122.75,, even after incurring four seconds in penalties for touching gates. She had to wait until the final paddler completed the course to claim victory, but the expected final charge from teenage sensation Jessica Fox (AUS) never materialised. Fox's time was 126.14, but she also had a gate penalty to finish in 128.14, a total of 1.39 seconds behind Lawrence in second place.

Third place went to Australia's Leanne Guinea in 128.84. Like most girls in the field, third place finisher Leanne Ginea found the course challenging but was impressed with the overall quality of the race. "It's a hard course out there. I just tried to keep as close to the line as possible is the key," Guinea said.

After the race Fox said, "It wasn't my ideal run. I had a few mistakes and lost my balance every so often so I was a bit disappointed, but hey, it happens. It's hard. I qualified first in the semi final and just couldn't back it up in the final."

The Women's final was the last event of the Australian Open.