The two biggest names in world canoe slalom paddling in 2023 once again underlined their class with gold-medal winning performances on day two of finals at the International Canoe Federation World Cup in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Saturday.

Australia’s Jessica Fox won an incredible fourth gold medal for the season with victory in the women’s K1, while Czech Jiri Prskavec won his second gold for 2023 with a win in the men’s K1.

There was also a second silver medal for the weekend for Ukraine’s Viktoriia Us, and a bronze medal to follow on from yesterday’s gold medal for Germany’s Elena Lilik.

But it was the three-time Olympian Fox who once again stole the show, bouncing back from a disappointing C1 final on Friday to lock away back-to-back K1 gold medals. It also continued Fox’s love affair with the Tacen course, where she has won gold every time she has raced there since 2013.

The Tokyo C1 gold medalist said she is looking forward to a break.

“I think I have a kind of love-hate relationship with Tacen,” Fox said.

“I can’t be mad at the course today, but I definitely was feeling it yesterday. It’s definitely been amazing to come back and race here, the crowds are always really great to be in front of, and the course is always challenging.

“We’ve had three weeks of back-to-back racing, which is quite tough, physically demanding and mentally taxing. This new program is pretty challenging because there are no rest days, so I’m looking to a few days off.

Fox finished in 96.22, well clear of US on a time of 98.91, with Lilik just 0.01 seconds back in third.

The women’s event was not without drama. Reigning Olympic champion Ricarda Funk had a run she would rather forget, not progressing to the final, while Poland’s Klaudia Zwolinska posted the quickest raw time of 95.06 in the final, but had two gate touches and four seconds of penalties to drop down to fourth.

Jiri Prskavec had never won a world cup gold medal outside his Prague home course before breaking through in Tacen last year. On Saturday he showed the connection with one of the most challenging courses on the ICF world circuit remained, finishing more than four seconds clear of teammate Vit Prindis.

“Last year I was saying this was only once in a lifetime to get such a good run in Tacen, and now it is for the second time, so it’s twice in a lifetime,” Prskavec said.

“It’s been a really nice start to the season. In my final I just flew through and jumped on a really good wave and kept it until the end pretty much, so I was really happy about my run.”

It’s back-to-back gold medals for Prskavec after his K1 win in Prague last weekend, and he also has a C1 bronze in his debut season in the canoe.

Prindis had a two second penalty for a gate touch, but his raw time was still 2.44 seconds behind the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist. Austria’s Felix Oschmautz won the bronze.

The men’s and women’s kayak cross will wrap up the third world cup on Sunday.

RESULTS

WOMEN’S K1

1. FOX Jessica  (AUS) 96.22 (0 seconds in penalties)
2. US Viktoriia (UKR) 98.91 (0)
3. LILIK Elena   (GER) 98.92 (0)

MEN’S K1

1. PRSKAVEC Jiri          (CZE) 85.02 (0)
2. PRINDIS Vit              (CZE) 89.46 (0)
3. OSCHMAUTZ Felix (AUT) 90.05 (0)

Exclusive coverage of all the racing can be found on the ICF’s Recast platform.

Find out more about the venue here.

Explore Slovenia

Češki kajakaš Jiri Prskavec je zmagal na tekmi za svetovni pokal v Tacnu. Drugi je bil njegov rojak Vit Prindis, tretji pa Avstrijec Felix Oschmautz. Izmed Slovencev se ni nobenemu uspelo uvrstiti med deset finalistov.

Prskavec, drugouvrščeni na svetovni lestvici ICF, je zmagal s časom 85,02 sekunde. Prindis je zaostal za 4,44 sekunde, Oschmautz pa za 5,03 sekunde.

Med Slovenci je polfinalni nastop najbolje uspel Petru Kauzerju, ki mu je ob dveh dotikih vratc 5,23 sekunde zaostanka za najhitrejšim polfinalistom Prindisom zadoščalo za nehvaležno 11. mesto.

“Bila sta dva minimalna dotika in v kajakaški konkurenci na žalost s štiri kazenskimi sekundami ne moreš upati na finale. Raje bi videl, da bi bil 30. ali pa 40.,“ je potem, ko še na tretji tekmi letošnje sezone svetovnega pokala ni uspel priti v finale, razočarano dejal Kauzer.

Po dolgem času se je sicer dobro počutil v čolnu, tudi s svojo hitrostjo je zadovoljen. “Pozitivno je, da se bil danes res hiter dol čez progo, lahko sem napadel,” je dejal in se spet spomnil obeh dotikov vratc. “Malo mi je žal zaradi teh minimalnih dotikov, ampak tako je pač naš šport, na koncu štejejo še dotiki in tako se je zdaj treba resetirati in se pripraviti na evropske igre.“

Lan Tominc je tekmo končal na 22. mestu, Žiga Lin Hočevar pa je bil 32. Najmlajši član slovenske reprezentance s svojo vožnjo ni bil zadovoljen. “Vožnja je bila kar slaba, mislim, da sem bil sposoben tudi finala, kar sem dokazal že v kvalifikacijah, ko sem bil deseti,” je dejal. Toda petnajstletnik je hkrati dodal: “Za moja leta je bila v bistvu kar dobra.”

Avstralska kajakašica Jessica Fox je osvojila zlato medaljo na tekmi za svetovni pokal v slalomu na divjih vodah v Tacnu. Edina slovenska predstavnica v finalni vožnji Eva Terčelj je bila peta.

Vse tri prejemnice medalj so s progo na Savi opravile brez napake. Jessica Fox je potrebovala 96,22 sekunde, drugouvrščena Ukrajinka Viktoriia Us 2,69 sekunde več, tretjeuvrščena Nemka Elena Lilik pa še stotinko sekunde več. Nemka je tako bronasto medaljo dodala petkovi zlati medalji v kanuju, Ukrajinka pa je dopolnila par srebrnih medalj.

Eva Terčelj si je ob enem dotiku vratc nabrala 4,03 sekunde zaostanka za zmagovalko in nad petim mestom ni bila preveč razočarana: “Bilo je nekaj napak, toda nimam si kaj očitati, res sem napadala in dala vse od sebe in na koncu je tudi peto mesto odličen rezultat.”

Brez dotika vratc bi se sicer veselila drugega mesta. “Želiš si biti čim hitrejši, mogoče sem malenkost prehitevala,” je dejala, a hkrati ocenila, da tudi če se prikrade kakšna napaka, je še vedno dovolj hitra.

Današnji nastop vidi kot dobro popotnico za nadaljevanje sezone. “Končno sem dobila občutek na vodi, ki sem ga iskala v zadnjih tednih. Ves čas sem verjela vase, da zmorem, in to se si dokazala s samim rezultatom, tako da se veselim nadaljevanja sezone, zagotovo pa me čaka še kar nekaj dela.”

Na domačem terenu se ji zdi lepo tekmovati. “Navijači so neverjetni in zagotovo je tudi to pripomoglo, da sem se borila ter dala vse od sebe in se jim najlepše zahvaljujem za podporo,” je še dejala Eva Terčelj.

Med 30 polfinalistk sta se v petkovih kvalifikacijah uspeli prebiti tudi preostali Slovenki na domači tekmi Ajda Novak in Eva Alina Hočevar. Eva Alina, dobitnica bronaste medalje v kanuju na tokratni tretji tekmi svetovnega pokala, je finale zgrešila le za las. Med polfinalistkami je namreč dosegla 12. čas, Ajda je bila 17. Eva Terčelj je polfinalno vožnjo odpeljala z drugim najhitrejšim časom in brez napake.