NBC has now posted some great footage of the women's kayak final--you get to see most of the finalists take their runs. So after writing yesterday's post without really even knowing what I was writing about, I'll fill in a few details here.
Reigning two-time world champion Corinna Kuhnle of Austria lost her chance at the podium at Gate 5, where she missed the gate and had to loop back for it.
Jana Dukatova of Slovakia, the top-ranked K1W in the world coming into London, made no major mistakes, but just a lot of little ones that cost her time all the way down the course. Jessica Fox's currently-leading score was apparently very good indeed, considering that as great an athlete as Dukatova could not match it. Dukatova's run finished off a very disappointing Olympic slalom for Slovakia: her failure to medal, combined with bronze-medal performances by Michal Martikan and the Hochschorner brothers, was like the U.S. coming away from the Olympic swim meet with nothing but a couple of bronzes.
Maialen Chourraut of Spain, another world-leader coming in, had a very respectable run. S Her biggest mistake that I noticed was that she came in too high on the dive gate at #18 and had to backpaddle to set up for the surf across to #19. That might have cost her the silver or gold.
And for Emilie Fer of France, it was a moment of redemption. She had been considered a medal contender in Beijing, only to take an inexplicable 50-second penalty at Gate 2 in the final there. At Lee Valley yesterday she went out and simply did all the right things, and now she has a gold medal for her efforts.
And so the 2012 Olympic slalom race is in the books. Now I get a couple of days off from trying to look like an expert on this blog before the flatwater sprint regatta starts on Monday. Thanks to everybody who's been reading all this. A couple of you have made very nice comments and I appreciate that.
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