Kayaking rivals Alyssa Bull, Alyce Burnett, Jo Brigden-Jones join forces in K4
OLD paddling foes have joined forces to become one of Australia’s newest sporting teams in a bid for historic success in kayaking.
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OLD paddling foes have joined forces to become one of Australia’s newest sporting teams in a bid for historic success in kayaking.
Surf lifesaving duo Alyce Burnett and Alyssa Bull pulled off one of the biggest upsets prior to the Rio Olympics when they beat Naomi Flood and Jo Brigden-Jones for the K2 spot at the Games.
Now two years on Brigden-Jones has joined the pair and Perth paddler Jamie Roberts to form one of the most exciting crews in the sport.
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Together for just months, the K4 500m quartet are Australian hopes for a medal at this weeks canoe sprint world championships in Portugal after a shock result at a World Cup in May. It is the first time since 2015 Australia has field a women’s K4 at the world championships.
The crew produced a record-breaking performance with their silver medal win at the Canoe Sprint World Cup in Szeged, Hungary, in May, when they set the fastest ever time for an Australian women’s K4 500 crew of 1:30.472.
“We’ve had a really good training block in Italy the last four weeks and we are really excited to get on to that start line and see all the hard work that we’ve done come out and see what we can do,” Burnett said.
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“After such a great result, especially at World Cup one with a silver medal, we’ve really been working on the K4 and have been trying to improve a few different things and we are hoping for a good result next weekend.
“It’s the last dress rehearsal before we can qualify for the Olympics so we’ll see how we go.”
After their upset in the Olympic trials, Burnett and Bull went on to make the finals of the K2 together in Rio while Bull last year won a world title in K1 1000 last year.
Aside from the K4 racing in Portugal, Burnett will also contest the K1 500 and Bull the women’s K1 1000.