WAIS kayaker Alana Nicholls and the Australian women’s K4 500m squad has narrowly missed a bronze medal at World Cup 2 in Germany following a thrilling final.
Little more than a second separated the front half of the field at the line, with the Olympic class event, fetching a high talent entry list at World Cup 2, as the elite nations prepare their boats for this year’s World Championships in Italy.
Nicholls, competing with fellow Australians Naomi Flood, Bernadette Wallace and Jo Brigden Jones, was tasked with racing from lane 8, and the Australian girls made a strong fist of their final, despite the non favourable lane draw to push the top three to the wire.
The girls’ time of 1:34.861 was bettered by Belarus, Poland and hosts Germany, but the speed in the developing boat left the crew optimistic for the future.
A second Australian crew containing WAIS athlete Jaime Roberts qualified for the final and finished seventh, underlining the nation’s depth in women’s 500m racing.
Australian Head Coach David Foureur was encouraged by the girls’ performances, especially at the thought of having two boats in the K4 500 A final.
“I can never remember Australia doing that at World Cups before so that shows the strength of our women’s group and there is a bit of depth there,” Foureur said.
He is also encouraged by their potential for improvement ahead of the World Championships in August.
“I think for the K4, although they are experienced athletes they have not spent a lot of time together in the K4 so it is really just getting down to the nuts and bolts and just doing the hard work and learning how to paddle the boat,” Foureur said.
“I think we can make some really big gains there.”
Flood, Wallace, Brigden-Jones and Nicholls also featured in the K4 200 final, finishing sixth. Nicholls individually, recorded a sixth place finish in the women’s K1 500m, with Kiwi Lisa Carrington winning the event for the second world cup in a row.
Jaime Roberts also featured alongside Bernadette Wallace in the women’s K2 200m final, with the pair finishing behind Great Britain, Germany and New Zealand for seventh place.
In the men’s 200m events, the established crew of WAIS athletes Jesse Phillips and Stephen Bird were separated with seat racing trialled with, Phillips competing with Callum Dunn and Bird racing with WAIS athlete Brodie Holmes.
The inexperience of the duos showed, with neither combination registering an A Final appearance. Bird and Holmes did however, finish ninth in the B Final, in a time of 35.041.
