Canoe-Women paddle through history in the slalom heats

TOKYO, July 28 (Reuters) – Cook Islands’ Jane Nicholas made history on Wednesday, becoming the first woman to compete in an Olympic canoe slalom event as the sport and the Games move closer to gender parity .

She was the first of 22 women to shoot down the artificial whitewater course in Tokyo, with 18, including all of the medal favorites, advancing to the canoe slalom semi-finals on Thursday.

The Briton Mallory Franklin, 2017 world champion, set the best time of 105.06 seconds.

Four-time world canoe slalom champion Jessica Fox of Australia also qualified. Fox won a bronze medal in the kayak slalom on the same course on Tuesday.

Slalom kayakers use two-bladed paddles and sit with their legs in front of them. In canoes, paddlers sit with their legs under them and use a single-bladed paddle.

Fox and other paddlers have campaigned for women’s canoe slalom to be added to the Olympic program, which they hope will help spark greater public interest in the sport and with it more funding and access. to better training and better workout.

“I had to fight for 12 years just to get here so it’s really special for me,” said Canadian Haley Daniels after being knocked out in the prelims.

His male teammate Michael Tayler has expressed his support.

“It seemed like a no-brainer, well why wouldn’t there be a female canoe class and there isn’t really a right answer to why there wasn’t. A lot of good people had to push. strong to get it at the Olympics, ”Tayler said after the men’s kayak slalom.

Female athletes in sports ranging from boxing to shooting fought for a level playing field with their male counterparts, winning an International Olympic Committee commitment to gender parity.

In Tokyo, nearly 49 percent of athletes are women, according to the quota allocation of the International Olympic Committee, which described the Games as the first in history to balance the sexes.

In the semifinals, Mallory and Fox will face Germany’s Andrea Herzog, who at 21 is the reigning world champion, and Ana Satila of Brazil.

In the men’s kayaking playoffs, gold medal favorite, Czech Jiri Prskavec comfortably qualified in fourth place. A victory for the 2016 bronze medalist and current world champion would be the Czech Republic’s first in this event.

Other contenders for the next stage include German Hannes Aigner, Slovenian Peter Kauzer, 37-year-old oldest competitor in the men’s Olympic slalom, and Italian Giovanni de Gennaro.

Cook Islander Nicholas, a doctor, was among four women eliminated in the rounds.

Reporting by Tim Kelly, editing by Ed Osmond & Shri Navaratnam

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