WAIS kayaker Alana Nicholls has narrowly missed out on a medal after two finals appearances at the 2011 World Championships in Hungary.
Nicholls placed fifth in Saturday’s K1 500m final with a strong performance, before finishing equal fourth with Japan’s Shinobu Kitamoto in Sunday’s K1 200m final, less than a second behind gold medallist Lisa Carrington of New Zealand.
The positive news for Nicholls is that she has qualified both Australia’s K1 200m and K1 500m boat positions for next year’s Olympic Games in London, but for now will be left to reflect on what was marginally close to two world championship medal performances.
Nicholls was impressive in qualifying for the earlier K1 500m event, and in a world class field, started from lane five. Nicholls however, lost ground over the first half of the race, and despite producing her customary fast finish, was only able to peg back fifth position in a time of 1.49.136mins.
Race victory was taken by German Nicole Reinhardt, with Danuta Kozak of Hungary claiming silver and bronze going to Ukrainian Inna Osypenko-Radomska. The bronze medallists’ time was again painfully close to that of Australian champion’s Nicholls, with less than half a second separating her from the medal podium.
The story was a similar one in the K1 200m final, was Nicholls again unable to overhaul a fast starting field. Despite missing out on World Championships medal, Nicholls will reflect on what has been a hugely successful 2011 international campaign that has featured medals at World Cup level, A finals at World Championship level, and two boats qualified for Olympic contention in 2012.
WAIS-AIS K2 200m kayaking athletes Jesse Phillips and Stephen Bird were left to fight out the B-Final after a slow semi-final eliminated the national champions from contention.
Phillips and Bird qualified with a fast heat performance, but were unable to replicate their feats in the semi stage, competing instead in Sunday’s B Final.
The pair finished fifth, in a time of 33.560, ranking them 14th overall in the K2 200m. The B Final was won by Ryan Cochrane and Hugues Fournel of Canada, with Spanish and Russian crews collecting the minor medals.
