Fox among fastest as chase for third gold begins

After downplaying her chances of winning a historic third Olympic gold in Paris, paddling queen Jessica Fox was among the fastest in the time trials for the kayak cross event.

With the C1 and K1 titles already in her keeping, Fox is striving to become the first Olympic kayak cross champion after it was added to the program for Paris.

Fox is competing against her youngster sister Noemie, who is making her Games debut and the siblings are planning a two-pronged attack on the field.

The competitors were out on the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium whitewater course on Friday (local time) for time trial runs which will determine seedings for round one.

Jessica posted the second-fastest time of 70.84, just half a second behind France’s Camille Prigent, which means she will enter the round one races – where four canoeists go head-to-head in each race – as the second seed.

Noemie also secured a spot in the top 10, stopping the clock at 73.09, which put her eighth from 37 entries.

Jessica said a fast time-trial didn’t always equal with a medal.

“We’ll take it round by round, today was good, but it’s so hard to have expectations in the kayak cross because you could win the time trial and get knocked out in the first round,” the 30-year-old said.

The elder Fox said they planned to use their sisterly connection to work together to try to remain alive through the rounds of competition, which features four paddlers per heat.

“We’ve practiced together and raced together before and we’re also really good at reading each other,” Jessica said.

“Top two make it through each round so as much as we can we’re going to be working together to make sure we’re the top two.

“There’s certain strategies and tactics you can use but if it comes down to it, if I’m in second and she’s in third, absolutely it will be me and she’s the same – you’ve got to do your own race as well.

“I think she’s going to be great and it was great today to see her become an Olympian.”

In the men’s competition, Australians Tim Anderson and Tristan Carter both posted mid-field finishes.

Anderson came 20th with a time of 71.41, while Carter was two spots back with 72.94.