Pressure on for WA Slalom Canoe Athletes
Western Australian slalom canoe athletes Kynan Maley and Robin Jeffery will need to win the second Olympic selection trial at the Oceania Championships in Penrith later this month to have any chance of qualifying for the Rio Olympics.
The first of two selection trials was held at Penrith over the weekend – at the Australian Open – with New South Welshman Ian Borrows claiming victory, after finishing 12th overall but crucially, highest ranked of the competing Australian contingent.
WAIS scholarship athletes Kynan Maley and Robin Jeffery finished with second and third rankings in the selection trial, after recording the 14th and 17th fastest times respectively.
Borrows set a time of 100.68secs which included a two second penalty for a gate touch, which saw him narrowly ahead of Maley who clocked 101.47 similarly with a two second penalty.
Jeffery stopped the clock at 101.94 with no time penalties, but was left to rue a couple of technical elements that saw him losing time negotiating the gates in Penrith’s whitewater.
With the Oceania Championships representing the second and final Olympic selection event, all paddlers will be looking to finish with a flurry.
Ian Borrows holds top rank at present and he said post Australian Open that he will be looking to focus ahead of the second event from February 19-21.
“I got lucky at the end there to sneak in front of Kynan and Robbie Jeffery to get the win, He said. “It puts me in a good place for the Oceanias in a couple of weeks. Now they have to beat me so I can now relax and try to ease into the race a little more,” Borrows said.
If Borrows wins the second selection event he will confirm qualification, whilst a second place finish for the NSW paddler would still leave him in a strong position, with only Kynan Maley in contention, and this, only, if Maley were to win in Borrows’ place. Robin Jeffery would require a selection victory and hope that other results fall his way.