CANOE-KAYAK: Fox shatters records with dual Slalom World titles

Australia's Slalom star Jessica Fox

“It’s been the perfect season, the perfect world championships, I’m absolutely thrilled.”

She should be.

Australia’s Jessica Fox (pictured) re-wrote the record books with gold medals in both the C-1 and K-1 events at the ICF World Canoe Slalom Championships in Rio de Janeiro (BRA) over the weekend.

The favorite in both events, she won the K-1 on Saturday, ahead of Britain’s Mallory Franklin by more than two seconds, then came back Sunday to win the C-1, beating Franklin by an impressive 4.78 seconds to complete the double.

She won the C-1/K-1 double for second time, also have done it in 2014, and ran her career World Championships gold-medal total to nine, the most ever for women and breaking her mother’s record of eight. Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi (FRA) won eight world titles and 10 medals overall from 1983-95.

By winning the C-1 and K-1 individual races, she also set a record for the most Worlds wins in individual events; she now has seven, eclipsing the prior best of five, held by four men, including her father, Richard Fox, who paddled for Great Britain from 1979-93.

Fox’s two wins also boosted her career Worlds medal total to 12 (9-1-2), moving to no. 2 all-time at the World Championships; only Czech Stepanka Hilgertova (14: 1989-2015) has more. And Fox is just 24.

“Yesterday was really hard because I couldn’t appreciate what I had achieved because I had the C-1 semis in the afternoon,” said Fox. “But now all the emotion is there, it’s amazing to share it with everyone that’s here – my team, my family – I can’t wait to get home and celebrate.

“Growing up with two parents who were very successful in the sport was always pretty daunting, and I never thought I would be able to beat Dad’s record of five titles, or achieve what mum achieved To beat them is very cool, very special, but it’s as much their achievement as mine.”

Germans Franz Anton (C-1) and Hannes Aigner (K-1) were upset winners in the men’s individual events and each won his first world title. Summaries:

ICF World Slalom Championships
Rio de Janeiro (BRA) ~ 25-30 September 2018
(Full results here)

Men

C-1: 1. Franz Anton (GER), 97.06; 2. Ryan Westley (GBR), 97.94; 3. Sideris Tasiadis (GER), 98.87; 4. Matej Benus (SVK), 101.22; 5. Alexander Slafkovsky (SVK), 101.38; 6. Michal Martikan (SVK), 101.55; 7. Benjamin Savsek (SLO), 104.20; 8. Tomas Rak (CZE), 105.97.

C-1/Team: 1. Slovakia (Slafkovsky, Martikan, Benus), 99.67; 2. Slovenia (Savsek, Bozic, Bercic), 99.95; 3. Great Britain (Florence, Westley, Burgess), 100.87; 4. Germany, 101.11; 5. France, 102.32; 6. Czech Rep., 102.82; 7. Spain, 102.91; 8. United States (Lefevre, Eichfeld, Lokken), 103.53.

K-1: 1. Hannes Aigner (GER), 89.69; 2. Jiri Prskavec (CZE), 90.65; 3. Pavel Eigel (RUS), 92.17; 4. Boris Neveu (FRA), 92.83; 5. Joseph Clarke (GBR), 93.37; 6. Ondrej Tunka (CZE), 93.80; 7. Vit Prindis (CZE), 94.85; 8. Giovanni de Gennaro (ITA), 94.93.

K-1/Team: 1. Great Britain (Clarke, Forbes-Cryans, Bowers), 92.45; 3. Poland (Popiela, Polaczyk, Pasiut), 93.88; 3. Czech Rep. (Tinka, Prindis, Prskavec)), 94.84; 4. Switzerland, 95.95; 5. Germany, 95.96; 6. Austria, 96.06; 7. Spain, 96.77; 8. Italy, 97.72. Also: 12. United States (Smolen, Lefevre, Lokken), 101.68.

Women

C-1: 1. Jessica Fox (AUS), 109.07; 2. Mallory Franklin (GBR), 113.85; 3. Tereza Franklin (CZE), 116.74; 4. Nadine Weratschnig (AUT), 117.15; 5. Viktoria Wolffhardt (AUT), 117.31; 6. Ana Satila (BRA), 117.41; 7. Rosalyn Lawrence (AUS), 121.26; 8. Bethan Forrow (GBR), 124.20.

C-1/Team: 1. Great Britain (Forrow,Franklin, Woods), 115.78; 2. Czech Rep. (Fiserova, Havlickova, Satkova), 117.34; 3. France (Prioux, Bandu, Jacquet), 121.27; 4. Russia, 124.04; 5. Slovakia, 127.63; 6. Australia, 130.32; 7. Spain, 137.22; 8. Japan, 143.77.

K-1: 1. Fox (AUS), 102.06; 2. Franklin (GBR), 104.34; 3. Ricarda Funk (GER), 105.32; 4. Ursa Kragelj (SLO), 106.23; 5. Corinna Kuhnle (AUT), 108.91; 6. Stefanie Horn (ITA), 109.22; 7. Luuka Jones (NZL), 109.68; 8. Jasmin Schornberg (GER), 111.47.

K-1/Team: 1. France (Baudu, Lafont, Prigent), 108.37; 2. Germany (Funk, Schornberg, Fritsche), 109.12; 3. Great Britain (Franklin, Pennie, Woods), 109.36; 4. Czech Rep., 110.66; 5. China, 112.47; 6. Russia, 112.8; 7. Australia, 114.21; 8. Japan, 116.72.

Mixed

C-2/Team: 1. Marcin Pochwala/Aleksandra Stach (POL), 106.48; 2. Yves Prigent/Margaux Henry (FRA), 106.84; 3. Veronika Vojtova/Jan Masek (CZE), 110.25; 4. Tereza Fiserova/Jakub Jane (CZE), 111.30; 5. Sona Stanovaska/Jan Batik (SVK), 118.57; 6. Nuria Villarrubla/Samuel Hernanz (ESP), 121.19; 7. Charles Correa/Omira Estacia Neta (BRA), 132.76; only finalists.