Tasiadis and Franklin best in the C1 categories. All Czech boats qualified
Canoeists performed in qualification on Friday (11/6) afternoon's qualifications. Among the women, the British Mallory Franklin won; the best men´s canoeist is the German Sideris Tasiadis. All Czech ships advanced to the semifinals in both categories.
C1W
A total of 43 canoeists presented themselves in the qualification, 20 of them were expected to advance directly to the semifinals from the first race, and another 10 from the repairs. The qualification was won by the British Mallory Franklin (102.22 s, 2 seconds penalty), followed by Jessica Fox from Australia, who presented herself on a kayak in the morning. Andrea Herzog from Germany finished third (105.77 pp. 2 seconds penalty).
„I am happy that I made it through the qualification. The run was ok, but I know that I can go faster. I had one penalty, that was stupid, but I am happy everything was quite smooth and I managed that,“ said Herzog.
From the Czech paddlers, Tereza Fišerová advanced from the fifth place (108.18 s, 2 s penalisation) Gabriela Satková eighth (109.33 s, 2 penalisation). „I have mixed feelings about the run. It seems to me that I went quite well, but I still paddled a little differently than I normally do. Some gates were quite on the edge, which is unnecessary in qualifying rounds. Otherwise, I'm happy with the run. It's great to race with the whole world leaders here again. We can compare and the race is a bit more interesting," said Satková.
"The touch certainly didn't bother me at all. It's a qualification and I think I'm the kind of racer who can afford to have one touch, so despite that touch I was still calm. Although there were some minor mistakes, something did not go exactly according to plan, but overall I am satisfied with my run," added Tereza Fišerová.
C1M
Friday's qualifying races were closed by the canoeists, with 48 competitors at the start. The winner was the German Sideris Tasiadis, who showed a clean run (94.03). The second was Slovenian Benjamin Savšek (94.14 s) and the third Denis Gargaut Chanut from France (94.32 s).
Sideris: „The course was not as easy as it seems. You have to go the line, to cut the lines to be faster. Sometimes you have to go with more tactics, to go wider to the gates with more speed. This race is preparation for the Olympics, but at the same time this is one of the last races before Tokyo, especially international races. So now we are happy to be on start line.”
Savsek: „I am satisfied with my run. I am happy to do clean and smooth run and that´s enough for todays´ qualification. I hope I´ll go with the same runs in semifinal and then in final as I showed today. It is really nice to race again, to have all the athletes here.”
Lukáš Rohan of the home team advanced from the 4th place, and he also showed a flawless run (94.62 s). "I'm glad I managed to have a clean run. I paddled the first ride on my Olympic boat, I'm all the happier that it turned out like this and I hope that I will continue to do so on Sunday. That will be the most important thing. Thanks God we can race again. Last season was severely curtailed, now, there is the top class of athletes. We can compare ourselves to everyone, although it is still an advantage for us to compete at home.”