WAIS athletes competing at the 2014 ICF Sprint Canoe World Championships in Russia have produced solid performances in B Finals, with Alana Nicholls taking a win and the K2 200m pair of Jesse Philips and Stephen Bird setting a new personal best in finishing fourth.
WA Olympian Alana Nicholls put aside an injury riddled 2014 to finish 10th in the women’s K1 500m event after winning her B final in a time of 1:52.935 that would’ve placed her seventh in the A final.
Nicholls said she was pleased with her final, and encouraged by the time she produced.
“For me today I just wanted to go out and execute my race plan. I tried a few different things as I thought it was a good opportunity as I am at full taper just to see what would happen and things worked out pretty well for me,” Nicholls said.
“I was really looking for that finish line in the last 50 metres but I put everything into it and I am happy to come away with the win.”
Fellow Western Australian’s Steve Bird and Jesse Phillips set a new PB to finish fourth in the K2 200m B final.
The London Olympic pairing finished half a second behind Spanish duo Carlos Arevalo and Cristian Toro who recorded a win in 31.225.
Bird said a personal best at World Championships was a good result for the Australian national champions.
“I cannot ask for more than that really, a nice 0.3 PB so if you were to give me that two weeks ago I would have grabbed that with a lot of encouragement,” he said.
Phillips added that the result gave them renewed incentive to continue chasing the world’s fastest sprinters.
“If things keep progressing the way they are it is going to be a real hard fight like it was this time, but we believe in our prospects and we believe we can go better than we are going at the moment,” Phillips said.
WAIS paddler Jaime Roberts and her Australian K4 500m teammates finished fourth in the B Final in a time of 1:34.075. Roberts – on world championship debut – competed alongside Catherine McArthur, Alyce Burnett and Bernadette Wallace.
WAIS athlete and 2016 Rio Paralympic hopeful Brock Ingram finished his campaign with a win the B Final of the men’s K1 200m (LTA) clocking a fast 41.997. Ingram has had an injury interrupted 2014, but closed his worlds effort with a confidence building win.
– CanoeAus
