Ella heading for Olympics

Cook Islands kayak paddler Ella Nicholas is almost guaranteed a spot at the 2012 London Olympics and she will sew up her Olympic spot at the Oceania Championships in Australia in February.

Nicholas recently raced in the Canoe Slalom World Championships in Slovakia where she got her campaign off to a flying start to place 17th after her first run in extremely windy conditions.

The race was one of Nicholass best performances but the thrill of placing in the top field and having her named on the leaders board turned to disappointment when the first day results were nullified due to the less than perfect conditions which also saw racing stop for two days.

When the races eventually resumed Nicholas failed to fire and repeat her first day performance.

Her mother Sue Clarke reports that Nicholas raced solidly until the last section of the course when the large waterfall nicknamed Niagra caught Nicholas spinning her out to place 63rd.

Despite the disappointing finish, Clarke says that the news for Nicholass Olympic spot is good.

As New Zealander Luka Jones and Australian Jessica Fox both made the top 15 nation placing earning a place for their countries for London 2012 the Oceania placing will be almost guaranteed for Ella when she races in February in Australia at the Oceania Championships, says Clarke.

The criteria is that the country to earn the Oceania spot must have been represented at the World Championships to be eligible and then the result from Oceania will be counted.