13 July 2009

After sensationally claiming his maiden World Cup gold medal in Bratislava the previous week, Olympic silver medallist canoeist Campbell Walsh had to make do with an eighth-place finish in the kayak singles event at the Augsburg World Cup meeting in Germany at the weekend.

“I began my semi-final by hitting upstream gate 1 at the washing machine section - not ideal!” said Walsh. “I then hit gate 5, too! Undeterred, I committed to the lines and pushed hard for the remainder of the run. I had good feelings on the water, and was happy with the run time of 101 seconds.

“I expected that the four seconds of penalties to be added would push me out of the final. However, the tricky course proved quite difficult, and my fast time was enough to see me finish the semi-final in eighth spot.

“I was not too happy with my run in the final. Some sections were fast, and there were some other sections where I was not as technically good as the first, with a finish time of 103 seconds. I then hit the last upstream - which is always annoying! This was only good enough for eighth in the final, but the potential to be in the medals again was certainly there.

“Currently, I'm fourth overall in the World Cup. It’s too complicated to explain the ridiculous rules about how Continental Champs count for World Cup overall!”

Slovenia's Peter Kauzer won the final in Augsburg to claim his second World Cup victory of the season, ahead of local favourite Alexander Grimm of Germany and Italy’s Daniele Molmenti.