French dominate opening day of Canoe Slalom World Championships

France enjoyed an excellent opening day to the Championships ©ICF

World number one crew Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Peche cruised into the semi-final of the men's C2 event at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships here today, as they bid to secure their first world title.

The pair were one of the crews who the fans had defied overcast weather to watch on the opening day of action, while home interest was also incredibly strong in the C2 event with Richard Hounslow and David Florence making their return to the venue in which they earned Olympic silver three-years-ago.

On that occasion they had finished behind their compatriots Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott but due to the former's retirement Stott has struck up a partnership with Mark Proctor and the pair were the early leaders during the first run.

The duo delivered a clean run and having completed the course in 1min 34.81sec they were almost assured of becoming one of the 15 crews to advance from the first heat into the semi-final which is due to be held on Saturday, the same day at the final.

However, as some of the favourites for overall victory completed their opening runs the duo began to drop down the standings, with the defending champions Luka Bozic and Saso Taljat among those to leapfrog the home heroes after the Slovenia crew completed the course in 1:33.69.

It would prove enough for them to finish in the top five teams after the opening run behind Slovakian cousins Ladislav and Peter Škantar who finished fourth in 1:33.51, while Britain's Hounslow and Florence were third in 1:33.12.

Jessica Fox needed a second heat to book her place in the semi-finals ©ICF

They would all be left trailing though the French teams as Peche and Klauss showed their class by delivering a superb run to post the best time of qualifying of 1:32.63, with their compatriots Pierre Picco and Hugo Biso finishing just 0.28sec further back.

It opens up the prospect of France equaling East Germany's record of eight world titles in the event should the crews continue their form on Saturday.

After the first heat there was a distinct possibility of an all-European semi-final and final line-up, but China's Hongmin Yu and Jin Chen secured one of the five spots on offer in the second heat to prevent that eventuality.

French success continued in the women's K1 event, which took place in torrential rain, with Emilie Fer producing the fastest time in the first heat by crossing the finish line in 1:30.95.

The London 2012 Olympic champion clearly enjoys the course and will feel confident of winning her second individual world title in the event, having previously triumphed in the Czech Republic at the 2013 Championships.

Austria's Corinna Kuhnle was the only woman to get close to Fer's time as she finished 0.48sec adrift, with the third and fourth placed qualifiers Maialen Chourraut of Spain and the Czech Republic's Katerina Kudejova finishing 1.30 and 1.33 seconds down respectively.

Fiona Pennie would have finished in the top three had she managed a clean round after posting a time of 1:31.74, but after accruing two penalties she ended as the fifth best athlete.

Spectators were forced to brave torrential rain to watch the heats ©Twitter

One of the major surprises from the first run was that the defending champion Jessica Fox of Australia failed to finish in the top 20 to automatically reach the semi-finals, but she made the most of the second heat by claiming one of the 10 additional spots available.

“It was fast despite that but not enough to make it," she admitted regarding her first run.

"So the second had to be on line everywhere, and I had to make sure I qualified into the top ten.

"I was a bit shaky but it was enough for a third so I was safely in."

“This is the first time I have had to do a second run this season so it was a little bit different to deal with that pressure."