Hobart paddling star Dan Watkins going for gold after making C1 finals
Hobart paddler Daniel Watkins will go for gold today in the Tokyo Games after booking his place in the C1 semi in a dazzling Olympic debut after a nerve-racking day. LATEST >>
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HOBART paddler Daniel Watkins will go for gold final at the Tokyo Games on Monday after booking his place in the C1 semi in a dazzling Olympic debut after a nerve-racking day at the state-of-the-art Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre.
A hefty 50-second penalty for missing gate 15 in his opening heat on Sunday left the 25-year-old Derwent Canoe Club member with it all to do in his second run.
Watkins delivered when the pressure was on with the eighth-fastest run of the second heat to qualify 10th of the top 15 paddlers progressing to the semi-finals, which will be followed immediately by the final.
His time of 1m03.07s was +6.18 behind fastest qualifier Matej Benus, of Slovakia.
Clearly annoyed with his first run, Watkins punched the air after his second, prompting teammate Jess Fox’s coach and father Richard Fox to say: “You can see a sense of relief. That’s a pressure run at an Olympic Games and you’ve got to put it out there.”
Watkins will return for the semi-final at 3pm on Monday, with the final scheduled for 4.45pm.
“I would really like to make the final,” he said.
“That’s where everything unfolds and happens and I would like to get a crack at that.
“I’m a huge fan of my home state and it’s an awesome feeling and I’m so proud to represent Tasmania here in Tokyo.”
Course knowledge to help Olympic debutant
PARTICIPATING in a 2019 training camp in Tokyo has given canoeist Daniel Watkins some invaluable knowledge as he prepares to make his Olympic debut this weekend.
The 25-year-old takes to the rapids Sunday in the heats of the C1, helped by the experience of testing the course at the Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre in October two years ago.
Watkins spent the past few months contesting world cups in Prague and Leipzig, followed by a week at the Paris venue which will stage the next Olympic competition in 2024.
It is a base the Hobart paddler hopes can assist with any nerves on his first crack at Olympic level.
“It’s a pretty good course,” Watkins said of what faces him in Tokyo.
“It had just been finished and turned on when we were there so they were still configuring the bollards and it’s a bit more refined now.
“It’s probably the smallest Olympic venue so I expect quite tight racing and I think there won’t be much margin between us all.
“Often Olympic venues are bigger than the world cups and that spreads the field out a bit. This has less gradient but the difficulty of the whitewater means it is probably an easier course to navigate.
“There’s a lot more control with the plastic obstacles but the whitewater can take its
own path and there is always an element of change.
“It’s definitely not the biggest, but it’s pretty good quality.”
A multiple world championship representative and winner of both C1 and K1 at the
Australian Youth Olympic Festival in 2013, Watkins continues a long line of Tasmanian Olympic paddlers.
He following in the wake of Peter Genders and John Doak (both 1984), Daniel Collins (1992, 1996 and 2000), Peter Eckhardt (1992) and Justin Boocock (1996), with Collins winning a bronze medal in Atlanta.
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