WAIS-AIS athlete Alana Nicholls has won her first ever world cup medals in Poland over the weekend winning a silver medal in the women’s K1 500m and a bronze in the K1 200m finals.
It was an exciting weekend of racing for the Western Australian who earlier in the week left behind sunny Perth for the cooler conditions of Poznan for the challenge of testing herself against the quality of an international world cup field.
Nicholls won her first World Cup medal finishing second behind Germany’s Nicole Reinhardt for silver in the women’s K1 500m final. Heading into the weekend, Nicholls wasn’t sure how she would perform in the K1 500m event and was just happy to make the final.
“I was surprised at how good I was feeling leading into the 500’s taking into account that we only arrived into Europe on Wednesday. I was just happy to have made the A final in the 500m so to come out with a silver is fantastic,” Nicholls said.
After a slow start out of the blocks, Nicholls had a strong middle section of the race to power home to claim a bronze medal in the K1 200m final on day three of competition in Poznan. In an intriguing final, less than half a second separated the top five with Poland’s Marta Walczykiewicz and Germany’s Nicole Reinhardt finishing ahead of the Western Australian.
“There was a break called on the first start of the 200m so my second start was not very good. I was slow out of the blocks and I am not sure how but i managed to catch some of the girls through the middle to come home with the bronze,” she said.
Joining Nicholls in world cup action in Poland, were fellow WAIS-AIS athletes Jesse Phillips and Stephen Bird, who competed in both the K2 200m and 500m A finals. After impressing in qualifying, it appeared jet lag caught up with the national champions, as they were forced to settle for eighth (K2 200m) and ninth (K2 500m) place finishes respectively. The pair will be looking for stronger results in World Cup 2.
Nicholls and her fellow World Cup 1 squad members will depart Poznan for Munich to join with the men’s K1 1000m squad who have been training in Austria. The Australian team will prepare with a camp before heading to Racice, Czech Republic for World Cup 2.
Nicholls wants to use the training camp as a platform to work on her power out of the blocks as she expects several high profile paddlers to compete at World Cup 2 who were absent from Poznan.
“I am looking forward to having a big week of training in Munich, to fine tune a few aspects of my races that I was not happy with,” she said.
“I know that there are a few girls missing from the top so going forward I will need to improve on my speed out the blocks and hopefully have enough power to stay with them through the middle then hopefully enough left in the tank for a powerful finish,” the dual world cup medallist said.
World Cup 2 will commence in Racice, Czech Republic on May 20.
– Canoeing Australia
