WC1 winner Jess Fox OAM.

AUSTRALIA has captured eight of the eighteen medals on offer at the 2024 Paddle Australia Canoe Slalom Australian Open, which was held over the 2nd-4th February at the Penrith Whitewater Stadium.

The Australian contingent was led by gold medal-winning performances from Jess Fox OAM (WC1), Tristan Carter (MC1), Lucien Delfour (MK1) and Tim Anderson (MKX).

Jess Fox started the tournament brilliantly for Australia, taking out the Women’s Canoe title on Friday, followed immediately afterwards by Tristan Fox capturing Gold in the Men’s Canoe, ahead of Kaylen Bassett with the Bronze Medal.

“It’s different having back-to-back races,” Jess said. “It almost feels like we’re on the World Cup tour, moving week-to-week with a race each weekend.

“It’s just about feeling fresh, staying fresh in between and having a little bit of time to decompress and then get back into the zone.

Tristan said it was great to have the back-to-back racing, giving the Australian paddlers the chance to prepare for two weekends of racing similar to that of the World Cup season.

“After not quite having the result I wanted last week, I was sitting at home stressing and trying not to stress. It’s a lot to battle with in your own head. How I’m feeling right now, to say it’s different (to last week) is an understatement,” Tristan said.

Lucien Delfour won Australia’s third Gold medal in the Open Men’s Kayak Final on Saturday, following hot on the heels of Jess and Noemie Fox, who had earlier won Silver and Bronze respectively in the Women’s Kayak Final.

“It’s always good to get a win, especially at home with a pretty good field out there…the French and Jiri (Prskavec) was there as well,” Lucien said.

“It’s such a great thing for us to get those international paddlers, they really show us where the level is.”

Timothy Anderson closed the weekend out in style for Australia, winning Gold in the final event of the program, the Men’s Kayak Cross, whilst Noemie Fox won her second Bronze medal of the tournament, finishing second in the Women’s Kayak Cross.

“I’m absolutely stoked. It was a pretty incredible race really, I seemed to make all the right choices and everything went my way,” Tim said.

“It’s been a really big couple of weeks. It’s been quite stressful so it’s nice to finish off on a high note and executing what I planned to do.”