Tauranga kayaker Luuka Jones endures world cup frustration

Tauranga's Luuka Jones has maintained her perfect world cup canoe slalom record. Photo / File

Tauranga's Luuka Jones may have maintained her perfect World Cup canoe slalom record this season, but it's not without frustration.

Jones, who is in Germany competing in the 2018 ICT Canoe Slalom World Cup, qualified 13th in the her K1 heat overnight on Saturday, picking up a touch on the first gate but ending just 7.19secs adrift of the leaders. However, she needed a repechage run before making the C1 semifinals for the third week in a row.

She has now reached the weekend runs in both disciplines over all three world cups to start the season, though her C1 - despite qualifying fifth in her second run with three touches - continues to frustrate.

"I'm still not feeling good on the water and I can't seem to find any speed," Jones said.

Having picked up a new C1 boat in Europe this year, she's still in two minds whether to keep persevering with it or switch back to something she's comfortable with.

For the second week in a row, Jones will be joined by under-23 paddler Callum Gilbert in the semifinals, with Gilbert clocking the 28th fastest time - a 101.14sec effort - in his first men's K1 run to sneak into the top 30 and avoid the repechage.

Fellow under-23 Kiwi Finn Butcher picked up two touches to lie 48th in his first run and was three seconds off qualifying in his second run, finishing 18th.

Olympian and Tauranga athlete Mike Dawson couldn't shake the effects of a bug which had floored him for most of last week, electing to miss his second run to concentrate on yesterday's extreme slalom.

In other Kiwi action, Patrick Washer (44th) was the best of the men's C1 paddlers in the first run, with Ben Gibb 48th and Jack Egan 51st, with Egan leading the charge in the second run finishing 29th.

Jane Nicholas and Courtney Williams were 48th and 56th in their K1 women's first heat, respectively, with Nicholas improving to 24th in her second run.

Hannah Thomas made a good fist of her senior C1 debut too, finishing ahead of Jones in the first run and 20th in her second run.

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