TOKYO, JAPAN (July 27, 2021) – Women’s kayak semifinals and finals competition were held today at the Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre. Canada’s Florence Maheu (Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, QC) was the seventh paddler to maneuver the challenging Tokyo course in the semifinals.
The semifinal proved to challenge many of the racers with only 9 women realizing penalty free runs. Florence made some costly mistakes on the course that caused her to finish outside of the top 10 advancement cut-off for finals.
“I am pretty disappointed. I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do with too many mistakes. Following my heats, I had a goal to make top 15. I wanted to execute all the moves and have a clean run and I wasn’t able to achieve that today.”
Reflecting on her semifinal run, Maheu added, “I was pretty nervous and they were not easy moves so I need to feel more confident in the future and be more consistent.”
Germany’s Ricarda Funk (GER) captured the gold medal, silver for Spain’s Maialen(ESP), and bronze for Australia’s Jessica Fox(AUS).
Maheu will make the trip home back to Canada tomorrow following a long six-month European training and competition block in Europe. “I am quite excited to get back to Canada as it has been a long time away from home.”
Canada will compete next in the women’s canoe (Haley Daniels) and men’s kayak (Michael Tayler) slalom heats tomorrow July 28 JST time.
For full results click here.
The Canadian entries are listed below.
Canoe Kayak Canada is the national governing body for competitive paddling in Canada, one of Canada’s top performing summer sports with a total of 24 Olympic medals, and a leader in the Paralympic movement. Canoe Kayak Canada is a member-based organization that includes an intricate network of clubs as well as provincial, territorial and divisional paddling associations. Elite National Team athletes proudly represent Canada at various competitions around the globe – most notably the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Pan American Games, ICF World Cups as well as Junior, Under 23 and Senior World Championships.