Australian Open Bronze for Bell, Jeffrey and Maley

WAIS IASP athlete Robin Bell has claimed a third place finish in the final of the Australian Open men’s C1 event in Penrith over the weekend.

Bell – who won bronze at last year’s Beijing Olympic Games – was racing in his first competitive competition for the year and showed some promising form, taking the bronze medal behind Slovakia’s Matej Benus and Great Britain’s David Florence.

Benus negotiated the tricky middle section of the course with ease and set a lightning time of 106.02 to hold off Florence by three seconds, with Bell a further second back in third place.

Benus said that he had enjoyed the set up of the course.

“I always knew it was going to be tough because our Slovakian coach helped set it up,” Benus said. “I knew I had to be quick because the quality of the field was very good.

“I am very happy with the new rules as coming from Slovakia, Martikan (Olympic Champion and countryman Michael Martikan) is very hard to beat and now I have a chance to compete internationally as well.”

WAIS pair Robin Jeffrey and Kynan Maley also produced an encouraging result by claiming third in the men’s C2 final.

Slovakian Olympic Champions Pavol and Peter Hochschorner took gold in a thrilling final over the Slovenian pairing of Ladislav and Peter Skantar with the final margin just 0.34 of a second.