Jeffery Eyeing Fast Clean Runs at Slalom Worlds

WAIS athlete Robin Jeffery is looking forward to taking on the best at this weekend’s 2014 ICF Slalom Canoe World Championships in Maryland, USA.

Despite missing out on individual C1 selection, Jeffery will partner Ethan Hodson in the men’s C2 event, with the pair currently ranked 26th in the world but confident a good showing in the US can improve that dramatically.

With little separating the top C2 crews in the world. Jeffery believes the key will be to execute clean fast runs.

“C2 is so competitive at the moment. In Augsburg, just to qualify for the semis, everyone was within five seconds of the winners,” Jeffery said.

Unlike the other members of the Australian team, Jeffery and Hodson chose to remain in Europe ahead of the world championships.

“Ethan and I just felt we needed to keep working with Nick (Nick Smith, the pair’s coach), even when we were given the opportunity to go,” Jeffery said.

“We decided to stay in Europe because we thought we could do more technically, away from the course. Our raw speed at the last World Cup in Augsburg was really good and really competitive with the top guys, so that was really pleasing.”

The Australian pairing and the remainder of the C2M field will have their work cut out for them if they want to stop Slovakian cousins Peter and Ladislav Skantar who won gold at four of the five World Cups this year.

Defending world champions David Florence and Richard Hounslow, top seeds Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Peche of France, three-time Olympic champions Pavol and Peter Hochschorner of Slovakia and Slovenian pairing Luka Bozic and Saso Taljat appear the crews most likely to fight for the medals.

-CanoeingAus