Canoe Slalom: NZ paddlers confident after World Cup

TOP RESULT: Tauranga paddler Mike Dawson finished in the top 10 at the World Cup canoe slalom in Prague.PHOTO/CANOEPHOTGRAPHY.COM

New Zealand's top canoe slalom paddlers have taken a big dose of confidence from the first World Cup of the season as they eye Olympic qualification in less than three months.

Tauranga's Mike Dawson made his third World Cup final in Prague, finishing ninth, while fellow Bay of Plenty paddler Luuka Jones dipped out in the heats, but was delighted with her raw times.

Dawson was the fastest paddler in the heats and comfortably progressed through the semifinals. He missed a gate in the final, putting him out of the running, but equalled his best finish at a World Cup.

"These races are really good indicators to see where we're at, building into the season and into the world championships in London in September, so I was pretty excited to win the qualification and start in the final spot in the semifinals and deliver there," Dawson said.

"In the final, I slipped off-line and picked up a few more time penalties and it obviously wasn't my day, but it's always good to come to the first World Cup and have a really good run straight off the bat. I'm pretty excited about the rest of the season."

Dawson's missed gate meant he missed out on being caught up in the drama as Great Britain's Joseph Clarke made the run of his life to occupy top spot but was disqualified due to an underweight boat. The ICF's limit is 8kg and Clarke's boat weighed 7.98kg.

It gave under-23 world champion and Czech paddler Jiri Prskavec top honours. Last year's world champion Boris Neveu (France) finished just over a half-second behind the rising Czech star.

Jones, meanwhile, didn't progress through to the semifinals, missing gates in both her heat runs, although her raw time in her second run would have been good enough for second-fastest qualifier.

"It was disappointing not to be racing the semifinals as I liked the look of the course, but that's the nature of the sport and being a couple of inches offline in one gate proved really costly," Jones said. "I've got some really good things to take away though - two consistent solid runs with my times in the mix with the top K1 women."

Jones will compete in the second World Cup round in Poland this week, while Dawson will skip this week and focus on the third World Cup in Slovakia next week. His spot in the men's K1 this week will be taken by rising Tauranga paddler Jack Dangen.