Kayak Cross took centre stage on day two of the slalom selection series at Lee Valley White Water Centre, with senior, U23 and junior athletes all battling it out for selection onto the respective international teams for 2024.
Easter Sunday hosted race one of the competition, beginning with a time-trial to determine athlete seeding, before transitioning into the fiercely competitive head-to-head action.
Monday will see a further two rounds of competition, with points totals going towards international selection.
The new Olympic discipline makes its debut at Paris 2024 this summer, with World Champions Joe Clarke MBE and Kimberley Woods, along with Mallory Franklin, all confirmed to represent TeamGB in the event this summer.
With the aforementioned trio pre-selected onto the senior team, there are two senior places available in the women's event and three on offer in the men's event.
Two-time U23 World Champion Nikita Setchell (Holme Pierrepont) secured the first race victory in the women's senior/U23 competition.
After winning the time-trial, Nikita smoothly navigated the semi-finals, before demonstrating her experience in the A Final.
In a thrilling contest against Phoebe Spicer (Lee Valley), the Nottingham athlete clinched victory after a decisive move on the final upstream to cross the line first.
Amber Maslen (Independent) placed third ahead of Ellis Miller (Lee Valley).
Nikita said:
“I’m really happy to come away from the first race with a win, and have something in the bag.
“It was a tough final there against Phoebe, but I’m happy to come away with the victory into tomorrow.”
Jonny Dickson put down an impressive A Final performance to take top spot in the men's senior/U23 event after race one.
An U23 world bronze medallist in 2023, Jonny surged ahead to put space between himself and the chasing pack, before crossing line to put himself top of the selection standings going into the final day of racing.
Jonny said:
“Great days work, winning the time-trial and then the first round of racing. Work to do tomorrow to get it over the line, but I feel I’m in a really good place.”
Ben Haylett (Holme Pierrepont) and U23 World Champion Sam Leaver (Edinburgh Schools) engaged in a fierce battle for second place, with Ben ultimately edging ahead to seal the selection points.
Tom Mayer (Stafford & Stone) rounded off the final in fourth.
Darcey McMullins (Lee Valley) is top of the selection standings after round one of the junior women's selection series, with victory in the A Final.
Winning her semi-final ahead of Arina Kontchakov (Lee Valley), the clubmates went head to head again in the A Final, with Darcey coming out on top to win the round.
Olwen Yates (Stafford & Stone) finished third overall ahead of Sofia Alfer (Wydean) in fourth.
Jonah Hanrahan (Independent) continued his fine form this weekend, winning every round of the men's junior event to put himself in strong contention for selection.
Topping the canoe slalom standings yesterday, Jonah put in another commanding performance in the A Final to claim his first victory in the kayak cross selection process.
He said:
“I’ve worked a lot over the winter with Nathalie (Siegrist) on my kayak cross, and the work has paid off today.
“So far I haven’t taken any risks this weekend. It’s been a great start and hoping to continue that tomorrow and in Nottingham.”
Oscar Wyllie (Breadalbane) came through in second place after an impressive day of racing, whilst Gwion Williams and Nathan Nabili made up the top four.
With Joe Clarke (Stafford & Stone), Mallory Franklin (Windsor & District) and Kimberley Woods (Rugby) pre-selected, they entered into a ‘Guest' event alongside a number of international paddlers.
It was 2022 World Cup overall winner Mallory who took the spoils in the women's guest event after some competitive runs between the four paddlers, whilst Swiss athlete Dimitri Marx topped the men's guest event after winning his semi-final, before coming out on top of a strong field which included three-time World Champion Joe Clarke.