Australia

Jess Fox claims bronze after being hit with time penalties in canoe slalom K1 final


Australia’s Jess Fox has claimed a bronze medal in the women’s canoe slalom K1 at the Tokyo Olympics after falling short of winning gold because of two time penalties.

Fox, who was the last of 10 paddlers to make a run in the final after topping qualifying in the semi-finals, picked up four seconds worth of penalties to finish with a time of 106.73 seconds.

She had the fastest run of the final — 102.73 — but with the inclusion of the time penalties she finished just 1.23 seconds behind German gold medallist Ricarda Funk, who enjoyed a clean run.

Spain’s defending champion Maialen Chorraut — like Funk — did not incur time penalties to take silver, 0.10 ahead of Fox.

Fox, who was the gold-medal favourite in the Tokyo final, had previously won Olympic silver (2012) and bronze (2016) in the event.

It was Australia’s third medal on day 4 of competition in Tokyo after Kaylee McKeown won gold in the women’s 100 metres backstroke and Owen Wright claimed a bronze in the men’s surfing.

Australian has nine medals in total, with three gold, one silver and five bronze.

Fox, a three-time world champion in the K1 event, began the final at the Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre knowing she needed to beat Funk’s time of 105.50 to win gold.

She was hit with her first two-second time penalty early in her run, but seemed to steady herself to stay in gold medal contention.

But the second penalty for touching a gate eventually push Fox back to third place, leaving her devastated after she completed her run.

Fox had been the favourite to win gold in the final.(

Reuters: Stoyan Nenov

)

By the time of the medal ceremony, however, Fox was back to her upbeat self, as she joined Funk and Chorraut on the podium.

An Australian female kayaker shows off her bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Fox shows off her bronze medal on the podium.(

Getty Images: Adam Pretty

)

It is the fifth medal Australia has won in the women’s canoe slalom K1. Aside from Fox’s three medals, Danielle Woodward and Jacqui Lawrence claimed silver in 1992 and 2008 respectively.

Earlier in the afternoon, Fox led qualifying for the final with an almost flawless display in the semi-finals.

She attracted two penalty seconds but still recorded the fastest time of 105.85 to finish ahead of Slovakian Eliska Mintalova (107.18) and Funk (107.96).

Fox was the last paddler of 24 to compete in the semi-finals, after topping Sunday’s second run in the heats.

She will compete in the women’s canoe slalom C1, with the heats scheduled for Wednesday.



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