Joe Clarke opens season with two medals at Canoe Slalom World Cup in Augsburg
BySportsbeat
Updated 20/03/2024 at 12:29 GMT
The 2016 Olympic champion has been in fine form since missing out on the Tokyo Olympics, winning back-to-back world titles in the extreme discipline that will debut at Paris 2024. He made a fine start to the season at the World Cup in Augsburg. "I'm buzzing with that," he said. "It's great to put such a good run down in the final of my first race of the season internationally.
oe Clarke of Great Britain during the Canoe Slalom International Training Week at Lee Valley White Water Centre on May 24, 2023 in London, England
Image credit: Getty Images
Joe Clarke made a flying start to the canoe slalom season with K1 silver and kayak cross bronze at the World Cup in Augsburg, Germany.
In his first international race since becoming a father and working under coach Campbell Walsh - silver medallist himself at Athens 2004 - Clarke put in a pair of statement performances.
Having topped K1 qualifying, he clipped a late upstream gate in the final but his time of 90.71 seconds was only beaten by Italy's Giovanni De Gennaro.
"I'm buzzing with that," he said. "It's great to put such a good run down in the final of my first race of the season internationally.
"It shows everything I've been working on with Campbell is paying off and we're working in the right direction."
The Stoke star thought his chances of a second medal had gone when he finished shy of the top two in the semi-finals of Sunday's kayak cross event.
But he was given a reprieve after Slovakia's Martin Halcin was disqualified and took advantage of space at the back of the field in the final to snag bronze.
"I couldn't have wished for a better start to the season," said Clarke. "Everyone has developed new tactics in kayak cross this year and it was very hard to get ahead. It's all about making key decisions in the race and I think I did that."
Elsewhere, Kimberley Woods finished seventh in women's C1 and Tokyo Olympic fourth-placer Adam Burgess missed the men's C1 final.
Mallory Franklin did not race in Augsburg, with performance director Mark Ratcliffe confirming the Olympic silver medallist will return for World Cup 2 in Prague next weekend.
Franklin broke her hand over the winter and underwent surgery, limiting the amount of training she has done ahead of the season start.
Ratcliffe said: "It was great to see Joe start the season so well and to win medals in each of the Olympic disciplines is superb.
"This weekend we've seen some good results, we've got a lot of new team members here and there has been some good progress with lots of positives and learnings to take into the season."
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