Roberts and Bird Race A Finals in Duisburg

WA sprint kayakers Jaime Roberts and Steve Bird have both contested A Finals at World Cup II in Duisburg.

Roberts and the Australian women’s K4 500m squad were fifth in their final, whilst Bird earned ninth spot in the men’s K1 200m decider, in his first A Final since returning to international competition post Rio Olympics.

The second consecutive A Final appearance for the K4 500m girls has thrown further weight behind their late bid to contest the event at this year’s World Championships in Portugal.

At the first World Cup event in Hungary, the team won a silver medal and then backed that effort up once more, to put themselves in the front half of the final at the season’s second World Cup in Germany.

Speaking on behalf of the group after their final, team member Alyce Burnett said the team were in full confidence for the remainder of the international season and beyond.

“To come away with a silver last weekend and a fifth this weekend is pretty special,” Burnett said.

“We’re going to be racing the K4 at worlds, once we get the official nod. It’s really good to have us four together and have a solid block and who knows what might happen next year.”

In Duisburg, the race for gold quickly became a head to head battle between New Zealand and Poland, with Australia fighting a three-way tussle for third place with Russia and Germany.

At the 250m mark, very little separated Australia in fifth, from Russia in third, but as the race intensified – the Aussies couldn’t maintain the pace and settled for fifth, with New Zealand winning ahead of Poland and Russia.

Steven Bird improved upon his opening hit-out at World Cup level for 2018, when he raced in the A Final of the men’s K1 200m.

Having missed the elite final in Hungary, Bird found increased race pace to win his semi-final in a time of 36.086secs.

He couldn’t quite find his best start in the A Final however, leaving himself with ground to catch up on the field after the opening 50m, but he still managed a good back end to clock home in ninth position in a time of 36.499.

The Australian team is not contesting World Cup III with Jaime Roberts returning to the Gold Coast where she is based with the national high performance squad, whilst Bird will centre his preparations for August’s World Championships on a training block in the UK.