CANOEING: Kimberley Woods ends season ranked third in the world

Best in Britain for fourth year too
Kimberley WoodsKimberley Woods
Kimberley Woods

For the fourth consecutive year Kimberley Woods is Great Britain’s top canoeist. She is ranked first senior woman in the country in the C1 Canadian class, and second for the K1 Kayak.

She is top of both categories in the Under 23s.

And in the world rankings, the Rugby Canoe Club member is now a fantastic third at C1, improving from fourth last year and has jumped up to 19th in K1 from 30th in 2016.

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Kimberley, 22, who now trains and competes full time after finishing her sports studies at Hertfordshire University in the summer, has had a very busy September and October.

Competing in canoe slalom at the final world cup in L’seo, Spain she was fourth in Canoe (C1) class and 15th in kayak (K1) the highest placed GB boat in both classes.

This was followed by the British Open at Lea Valley in North London where she came second in both C1 and K1.

Next it was Pau in the South of France for the Canoe Slalom World Championships. Her K1 race did not go well, missing a move on both runs and failed to qualify for the semi-finals.

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C1 was going well until on her final run, being half a second up on time, she got pushed by a boil and missed the line causing a paddle back resulting in dropping down to eighth place.

Kimberley flew back to the UK late on the Sunday evening then back to Heathrow early Monday morning for a flight to Japan to compete in a different water sport, representing Great Britain in the white water World Rafting Championships. The race has four individual categories, Head to Head, Sprint, Slalom and Down River, with an overall championship.

Kimberley, racing in the open age group, won gold in the Slalom, bronze in Sprint and bronze in the overall medal table. She also raced in the junior category replacing an injured team member taking gold in the Head to Head race.

It was back to England last weekend for the final premier race of the year at Teesside where she came first in the C1 and second in K1.

Kimberley, who is grateful to all her sponsors, has her sights set on the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

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