Franklin welcomes confidence-boosting European bronze

Mallory Franklin was satisfied to medal despite not being at her best after clinching bronze in the K1 event at the European Canoe Slalom Championships in Liptovsky.

The Tokyo 2020 C1 silver medallist completed the podium behind Italy's Stefanie Horn and Slovakia's Eliska Mintalova after they took joint gold in an identical finishing time.

Franklin finished 3.05 seconds slower than the champions, who both crossed in 1:47.24 to share the top step of the podium for the first time in the history of the European Championships.

And while the Brit admitted she was frustrated with the way she finished her run, the 27-year-old took encouragement from still being able to come away with a bronze reward.

"I definitely didn't feel like I put down my best run. I started well but didn't finish as I would have liked to have done but to still be able to do a medal-winning run is cool," she said.

"I was focusing on the C1 in the run up to Tokyo but I've had a really good winter training and it's great to be able to deliver internationally which will really get my confidence up.

"The extreme slalom will be tough, with the field being cut to just 15 but I'm just going to go out and enjoy it. It's now a long schedule for me now and getting longer but I'm looking forward to the C1, I just want to hold my form, be consistent and deliver good races."

In the men's K1 final, 2016 Olympic champion Joe Clarke narrowly missed out on the podium by just 0.16 seconds having led the field until the final three athletes knocked him out of the medals.

An unfortunate touch on gate 25 - and the subsequent two-second time penalty - ultimately proved costly for Clarke, who had to settle for fourth place in 99.61.

Czech Jiri Prskavec, Giovanni De Gennaro of Italy and Austrian Felix Oschmautz took gold, silver and bronze respectively after overtaking Clarke.

Clarke quickly put that disappoint behind him to progress to the finals of the Extreme Slalom, with the discipline making its Olympic debut in Paris 2024.

Bradley Forbes-Cryans will join him in the men's competition while both Kimberley Woods and Franklin eased through in the women's event with the two fastest times.