Mallory Franklin won a women’s C1 gold medal in style over the weekend (25-27 October) on the newly opened Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre as the four canoe slalom Olympians competed at the Tokyo test event ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games next year.
Mallory showed her trademark speed and precision once again on the Japanese course to top the podium.
Despite coming 6th in the semi-finals including two touches on gates 7 and 8, Mallory regained her composure for the C1W final later in the day and put down a storming clean run of 110.95 to finish over five seconds ahead of Nuria Vilarrubla of Spain to take the gold medal.
Speaking on the competition and her time of the Tokyo waters so far, Mallory said:
“I am really happy to come away with the win at the Olympic test event. The racing was tough, the course that was set was very technical and it was a real puzzle to work out. But I am happy to have out a run together in the final, and to come away with a win is a good boost going into winter training.”
The course is quite like Lee valley but smaller and I am really looking forward to spending a lot of time here learning the course. The team in general are really enjoying being out in Japan and experiencing the culture, and training on the course.
Elsewhere, Kimberley Woods was extremely close to a medal herself in the women’s K1. The Rugby athlete finished fourth in the final with a touch on gate 24 leaving Kimberley with a time of 106.06 and just over a second of a podium finish.
Bradley Forbes-Cryans claimed 7th place finish in the men’s kayak final after a clean run of of 96.04. The Scot went slightly quicker in the semi-finals but couldn’t quite challenge the top three in a tightly contested final that left just 2.5 seconds separating the top seven athletes.
Touches cost Adam Burgess a spot in C1 men’s final after he finished 14th. Two early penalties on gates 3 and 5 meant the Stafford and Stone paddler was two seconds away from a top ten place needed to qualify for the final.
See the Great Britain Olympic slalom team compete at the European Championships
Great Britain’s slalom paddlers will be competing on home soil at the European Canoe Slalom Championships presented by Jaffa on 15 -17 May 2020 at Lee Valley White Water Centre. Tickets go on sale on Tuesday 1 October. Full booking details on priority tickets are available here https://britishcanoeingevents.org.uk/
