KIMBERLEY Woods was back in action at the weekend to take part in the Canoe Slalom British Open & Premier Race at the Lea Valley Olympic course.
The venue played host to Olympic Games action back in 2012 and will be hosting the World Championships in September next year.
The course designers presented athletes with two challenging courses over the weekend, designed with fast racing in mind which produced very competitive racing across all classes and each age category.
And due to the large entry numbers racing was staged from 9am and finished under flood lights after 6pm on Saturday making it a very long day for officials in the timing and judging teams.
Woods, from Rugby Canoe Club, was taking part in the events that included the Great Britain senior, U23 and Junior team members and there were guests from several European countries including Germany, France and Sweden.
She took victory in the C1W Class in the premier division and finished second overall, confirming her position the top racer in the C1W Nation Senior and U23 rankings.
She followed this feat up on Sunday in the British Open with a solid performance in the semi-finals, coming in second place.
In the finals Woods was ten seconds ahead two gates from home when she went off line but when she tried to correct her boat flipped over.
By the time she rolled up she was unable to get back to the last gate and incurred a 50-second time penalty, placing her in ninth place overall.
Racing in the K1 class Woods came second in the Premier race, placing her second overall in the National Senior Rankings and first in the U23.
The following day Woods’ time was good enough for a medal position but she incurred a 50-second penalty for half heading a downstream gate pole, taking her out of contention.
Her coach’s video showed her in the gate but independent video evidence is not acceptable in the canoe slalom.
