5 July 2009

Campbell Walsh, the Nottingham-based canoeist and 2004 Olympic silver medallist, was in ecstatic mood after he won the kayak singles at the slalom World Cup event in Bratislava today to claim his maiden World Cup gold medal.

“My first ever World Cup win!” Walsh said after he beat Italy’s Daniele Molmenti, who came second, by a margin of 1.55 seconds. Alexander Grimm of Germany finished in third place, a further 0.11 seconds behind the Italian.

Walsh, who finished sixth in Pau last week in the first of the three-event World Cup series, only progressed to the semi-finals in Bratislava by dint of grabbing the 20th and final qualifying spot yesterday.

“Having been the last to qualify, I was first to leave the start line for the semi-finals,” added Walsh. “I had a good run of 94.39 seconds, and the time held up well to be the third fastest of the morning. I had a close look at the video and identified a few places where I could make up time.

“I felt good on the water all day, and managed to execute the plan well to go faster with a run of 92.67. The last boat down was Molmenti. He was faster on the split times until he hit one of the last downstream gates – doh! Despite the two-second penalty, he was still second, while Grimm, the Olympic champion, was third. It was a good day for me!”

It most certainly was a good day for Walsh, who now moves onto Augsburg, in Germany, for this weekend’s third and final event of the World Cup series.