Ella kayaks to 26th in Australia

Cook Islands slalom kayaker Ella Nicholas paddled into her first semi final to finish 26th at the Australian Open International Canoe Federation ranking race held last weekend in Sydney.

Two hundred and forty athletes from 29 nations, including Olympic medallists and World Champions, were at the event to claim valuable ranking points in this pre Olympic year.

Finding some good form and putting down a solid, clear first run in qualifications, Nicholas was sitting in 22nd place in the women’s K1 division.

As it always happens, some athletes improve during the second run and it was a nervous wait for Nicholas to see if she had done enough to make the top 30 cut and secure her first ever semi finals spot at such a big international race.

Sneaking in at 30th, she was through.

The course is made harder for the semis and Nicholas raced a solid race to secure a final placing of 26th beating some internationals ranked higher than her.

Nicholas had been training at the Penrith White Water Park, the 2000 Olympic venue, since February 3 with a French coach, who works with the ICF development athletes in Asia and this had considerably helped her race preparation.

Now the challenge for Nicholas is to keep training hard, while continuing studying for her medical degree at Otago University, ahead of the World Champs in September which is the first Olympic qualification event.