Maley Delivers on French World Cup Stage

WAIS slalom canoeing athlete Kynan Maley has produced his best ever World Cup result in finishing tenth in the men’s C1 Final at the World Cup event in Pau, France.

The 30 year-old Western Australian signalled his intentions ahead of London with an impressive 10th place finish in the men’s C1 final, his best ever World Cup result.

Maley was quick through the earlier heats and semi-finals, and his tenth place finish will give the NSW based paddler plenty of confidence heading to the Olympic Games.

In a dominant days racing from the French paddlers, Tony Estanguet used all his local knowledge, smashing the field by more than seven seconds to claim the men’s C1 victory ahead of Poland’s Grzegorz Kiljanek and Alexander Slafkovsky of Slovakia.

Maley doubled up to compete with fellow Australian and WAIS scholarship holder Robin Jeffery, and after qualifying strongly for the semi-finals, the pair missed the C2 final after a slow run on the Pau course.

The French continued their dominant weekend with Pierre Labarelle and Nicolas Peschier combining to win the gold in a time of 109.38, 2.37 seconds ahead of Slovakian cousins, Peter and Ladislav Skantar, whilst China’s pairing of Minghai Hu and Junrong Shu finished narrowly behind in third.

The team will depart France, headed for La Seu d’Urgell, Spain to prepare for the third and final World Cup prior to London, with the Spanish competition to commence on Friday 22nd June.

– Canoeing Australia