Events Calendar

GB CANOEING PRESS RELEASE

13^th August 2008

GBs Fiona Pennie ‘heart broken’ after Olympic medal hopes are dashed

Great Britain’s Fiona Pennie had a disappointing day today at the Shunyi slalom course.
Her hopes of winning an Olympic medal were dashed as she crashed out of the heats, not making it through to the semi finals tomorrow.

The 25 year old Scot, now based in Nottingham will be devastated by her result today.

Only the top fifteen athletes from the heats went through to the semi finals which take place tomorrow. Out of the nineteen athletes, Fiona came a disappointing 17^th place after catastrophically missing a gate on the first run which cost her a 50 second penalty, on top of that she got a 2 second penalty on the same run due to touching a gate.

Fiona’s second run was much quicker, but it just wasn’t quick enough. Her total time (two runs combined) was 259.06. The leader was Elena Kaliska who easily got through with a faultless, clean run in a time of 186.19.

“After training for four years to get here, it’s pretty heart-breaking to be honest,” she said. “It’s been a great experience, but I wish I could have experienced more tomorrow (in the semi-final). The fifty-second penalty was a killer. It was a unanimous decision by all three judges. On the first run all our coaches thought it was in, and in our video it looked it, but I guess that’s the way sport goes.”

Selected Results from today’s heats