World champion Jessica Fox will be attempting the first leg of a potential U23 world championship double today at Penrith.
Fox will be paddling at about 11.30am in the semi-final of the K1, and if she progresses will contest the final later this afternoon.
The K1 is the event Fox won silver in at the London Olympics, but she's bombed out at her two most recent major international events, failing to make the final at last year's World U23 and Senior World Championships.
Local paddler Alison Borrows upstaged yesterday in the qualifying round of the C1 at the U23 World Slalom Championships at Penrith.
Borrows, 21, finished qualifying with a time of 113.80, just ahead of Fox in 114.0.
“I was pretty happy with that,” Borrows said.
“I just wanted to put down a solid run, with smooth, clean lines. It happened and I got a good fast time, so it’s all good.”
Fox was not worried by the result, choosing not to do a second qualifying run to keep herself fresh for tomorrow’s K1 semi-finals.
“It was just about getting out there and putting down a good run to qualify for the semi-final,” she said.
“I just wanted to get some good feeling in the C1. The whole run felt pretty good, I had some minor mistakes and a slight touch, but I’m pretty happy.”
Fox is trying to limit her workload this week, after failing to make the K1 final at both the U23 and senior world championships last year.
It was a major disappointment for the 21-year-old coming off the back of her silver medal in the K1 at the London Olympics.
In the men’s C1 London Olympian Sebastian Rossi struggled on his first run down the tricky Penrith course, but put together a trouble-free second run to qualify first for this weekend’s semi-finals.
Rossi posted a time of 95.37, ahead of Slovakia’s Patrik Gajarsky at 96.22 seconds.
Australians Jaxon Merritt and Daniel Watkins both failed to qualifyfor the C1 semi-finals, but both qualified yesterday for the K1 semis.