Tokyo 2020 Olympics – Canoe Slalom – Women’s K1 – Final – Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre, Tokyo, Japan – July 27, 2021. Ricarda Funk of Germany reacts after competing REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
July 27, 2021
By Tim Kelly
TOKYO (Reuters) -Germany’s Ricarda Funk ended Australian Jessica Fox’s bid to win two canoeing golds at the Tokyo Olympics by taking the women’s kayak slalom title on Tuesday in a technically accomplished run down a challenging white water course.
It was Funk’s first major title since winning the European championship in 2018 and the first time a German paddler has won the women’s kayak slalom event since Barcelona in 1992.
Funk watched nervously as her rival Fox, the world No.1, powered out from the start. An early two-second penalty from a gate pole strike, however, appeared to unnerve the 2018 world champion. A second hit further down the course meant she had to settle for a second successive Olympic bronze in the event.
Fox, 27 is trained by her French mother, Myriam, a two-time kayak world champion and Olympic bronze medallist in 1996. The Australian will get another shot at Olympic gold this week when she competes in the first ever women’s canoe slalom at the Olympics.
Veteran Spanish kayaker and 2016 Olympic champion Maialen Chourraut took silver in her fourth consecutive Olympics.
The 38-year-old Chourraut, the only Spanish woman to have won Olympic medals in canoeing after she followed up her 2012 bronze with gold and silver in the next two Games, is known for her punishing race preparation and even trained when she was eight months pregnant.
(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Pritha Sarkar)
