Sage Donnelly found some continued success in the women’s K1 cross on Sunday as she finished second in her heat before being eliminated in the semifinals after a third place finish and placed sixth overall, her second straight top six finish in the event. The only other American competing on Sunday was Ashley Nee in the women’s K1. Nee was eliminated in the semifinals after finishing 26th in 139.45. She was 24.05 behind the top ten despite not taking any penalties.

The next ICF Slalom World Cup, the final one before the World Cup Final, is not until after the Olympics in Augsburg, Germany from August 26th-28th. The slalom events in Rio begin on Sunday, August 7th and continue through Thursday, August 11th.

Previous ICF Slalom World Cup Coverage:
Pau Preview
Friday Update
Saturday Update

Zachary Lokken, who will not be competing in Rio, became the first American to reach a final at an ICF Slalom World Cup event this year and finished seventh in the men’s C1. Lokken grabbed the final spot in the final after a 107.84 semifinal time that included two penalty seconds and left him with a final margin of 0.08. His final time of 109.47 also included two penalty seconds and was over seven seconds behind the top three. The other American semifinalist on the day, Richard Powell, was eliminated in the men’s K1 semifinal after placing 38th as he took 54 penalty seconds.

Later in the day Powell was fourth in the cross time trial in 63.23 and qualified for the 1/8 finals as did Tyler Westfall who was 20th in 68.67. The field for this event continues to grow and despite restrictions on how many athletes could advance from each country advancing there were a full 32 for the 1/8 finals. Powell was eliminated after finishing third in his heat while Westfall also finished third after being disqualified in his heat. The US had finalists in each of the previous two contests so to not even get one into the quarterfinals was a bit surprising. On the women’s side Sage Donnelly was ninth in the time trial in 75.69 and will compete in the quarterfinals on Sunday.

In additions to Donnelly in the women’s cross event Ashley Nee will be competing in the semifinals of the women’s K1 with the final being held later in the day.

Previous ICF Slalom World Cup Coverage:
Pau Preview
Friday Update

For the first time this year three Americans reached the semifinals at a ICF Slalom World Cup event and for the first time, one of them will be competing on Sunday. Zachary Lokken and Richard Powell reached the semifinals again, just like in Ivrea, while the American Olympians in their event failed to advance. Advancing to the semifinals for the first time was Olympian Ashley Nee in the women’s K1. Nee finished tenth and grabbed the final semifinal spot from the second qualifying heat with a time of 118.53, nicking the final spot by 0.46. Lokken advanced from the men’s C1 in the first qualifying heat with a 13th place finish in 109.34, over two seconds clear, while Powell grabbed the sixth of ten qualifying spots from the second heat with a finish of 103.68 that was only a second clear in qualifying position.

Among others competing…
Men’s C1: Casey Eichfeld finished 15th in the second qualifying heat in 115.19, missing out on a semifinal spot by 2.4 seconds.
Women’s C1: Sage Donnelly finished 13th in the second qualifying heat in 194.86 after taking a 50-second penalty. Donnelly would have easily been in qualifying range had she avoided that penalty.
Men’s K1: Michal Smolen was 39th in the first heat and missed qualifying by 2.15 after taking a penalty. That would be the closest he would come after taking a 50-second penalty in the second heat and finishing in 155.60. Tyler Westfall finished 44th in the second heat in 131.81.
Women’s K1: Anna Maria Ifarraguerri finished 32nd in the second heat after taking 58-seconds in penalties and a time of 197.18.
Men’s C2: Eichfeld and Devin McEwan were sixth in the second qualifying heat as they missed a semifinal spot by 2.65 seconds.

Lokken and Powell will participate in semifinals on Saturday with a final later in the day in each event. For Nee the semifinals and final of the women’s K1 are on Sunday. The men’s and women’s K1 cross events both will begin on Saturday with time trial runs to establish seeding and an 1/8 finals for the men. Powell (third in Ivrea) and Westfall are competing in the men’s event with Donnelly competing in the women’s event.

Previous ICF Slalom World Cup Coverage:
Pau Preview

The third ICF Slalom World Cup event is this weekend in Pau, France and the US has their Olympic team members and several others competing. Things begin Friday with the qualifying heats in the various events headlined by the US Olympic team members: Casey Eichfeld in the men’s C1, Eichfeld and Devin McEwan in the men’s C2, Michal Smolen in the men’s K1, and Ashley Nee in the women’s K1. Zachary Lokken in the men’s C1 and Richard Powell in the men’s K1 are also entered and have made semifinal appearances earlier this year.

Previous ICF Slalom World Cup Coverage:
La Seu d’Urgell Recap

Sage Donnelly was third in the women’s K1 cross event as for the second straight weekend the US appears to have a strong set of competitors in the new event. Donnelly had a decently easy path to the final as she was one of only eight to compete in the seeding trial run which she finished third in. All eight who qualified were advanced from the quarterfinals to the semifinals where Donnelly came in second in her heat to reach the final. Fellow American Ashley Nee did not take part in the event despite being in the start list.

On the men’s side Richard Powell was sixth in the trial run with Tyler Smith tenth though all 21 who entered advanced to the 1/8 finals. Both were in heats that had just two in the 1/8 finals so they advanced automatically. In the quarterfinals both won their heat and ended up in the second heat of the semifinals together. Smith held off Powell for second in that event to grab a spot in the final. Smith was last in the final to finish fourth while Powell finished second in the small final to finish sixth.

Earlier in the day Casey Eichfeld was eliminated in the semifinals of the men’s C1 when he finished 25th of the 30 semifinalists. Eichfeld finished in 106.64 after two penalties and missed a spot in the final by 4.34. In the men’s K1 semifinals Michal Smolen was 22nd in the semifinals out of 40 and missed a spot in the final by 2.53 after finishing in 97.23.

The third stop on the ICF Slalom World Cup is in Pau, France next month from July 17th-19th.

Previous ICF Slalom World Cup Coverage:
La Seu d’Urgell Preview
Friday Update

Just like last weekend only two Americans were able to advance from the qualifying heats at the ICF Slalom World Cup event. This weekend in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain those two are both Olympians who didn’t compete last weekend. Casey Eichfeld qualified in the men’s C1 while Michal Smolen qualified in the men’s K1. Eichfeld qualified for the semifinals with a 15th place finish in the first C1 heat. Eichfeld’s time of 97.49 was 5.07 behind the top time and less than a second ahead of not qualifying from the heat. Smolen was unable to qualify from the first men’s K1 heat after finishing 42nd in 94.48, just over a second short of qualifying. He grabbed one of the ten spots available from the second heat by finishing sixth in 90.42, over a second and a half clear of 11th.

In other action…
Men’s C1: Zachary Lokken just missed out on qualifying as he was 12th in the second qualifying heat, missing the semifinals by 1.71 seconds after picking up a two second penalty on his fourth gate and finishing in 100.51. Tyler Smith was 23rd in the second heat and over five seconds back with no penalties.
Women’s C1: Sage Donnelly, who didn’t compete last weekend, finished eighth in the second qualifying heat but 1.03 behind the five semifinals qualifier. Donnelly took four penalty points which cost her a spot.
Men’s K1: Richard Powell finished 31st in the first heat, missing qualifying by just 0.06 seconds despite not picking up any penalties in 93.39. The same time wouldn’t have advanced him in heat two but his time and he picked up four penalty seconds in a 95.34 finish that was 21st, and about three and a half seconds shy of qualifying. Tyler Westfall was 33rd in the second heat in 99.38.
Women’s K1: Olympian Ashley Nee did not take part in either of the heats while Anna Maria Ifarraguerri finished 25th in the second heat in 113.64, over 10 seconds back of the qualifiers.
Men’s C2: Devin McEwan and Eichfeld finished eighth in the second qualifying heat, missing a top five qualifying spot by over six seconds.

Eichfeld in the C1 and Smolen in the K1 will both take part in the semifinals on Saturday with the finals for those events later in the day. Also on Saturday will be the men’s K1 cross event and the women’s K1 cross event. Powell and Tyler Smith are entered in the men’s event, where Powell took third last weekend, while Donnelly and Nee are entered in the women’s event.

Previous ICF Slalom World Cup Coverage:
La Seu d’Urgell Preview

Last weekend at the ICF Slalom World Cup’s first stop of the year in Ivrea, Italy the US didn’t have any of their top athletes as none of the Olympic team members were present. That might have been reflected in the final standings as the US wasn’t able to advance anyone past the semifinals other than the new K1 cross event. Things will be a bit different this weekend as those Olympians will be competing in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain. All of the events begin on Friday with heats to qualify competitors for the semifinals which will take place on Saturday or Sunday depending on the event.

The Olympic athletes joining this week are Casey Eichfeld in the men’s C1, Eichfeld and Devin McEwan in the men’s C2, Michal Smolen in the men’s K1, and Ashley Nee in the women’s K1. They are joined by returning athletes from last weekend, most notably the two semifinalists from last weekend, Zachary Lokken in the men’s C1 (29th last weekend), Richard Powell in the men’s K1 (30th last weekend)..

Previous ICF Slalom World Cup Coverage:
Ivrea Recap

While the Americans didn’t have any real success in the traditional events at the ICF Slalom World Cup event in Ivrea, Italy Richard Powell did grab a bronze in a new event. Powell won the bronze in the K1 cross event, a competition where competitors race head to head instead of competing on time. Powell’s competition started off with a seventh place finish among the 15 who competed in the time trial to seed the field for the main event. Powell’s time of 40.40 was 3.77 behind the top time. Fellow American Tyler Westfall was right behind Powell in eighth in 40.88.

In the quarterfinals where the top two in each heat would advance Westfall caught the break of being in a heat with just three but finished third of those three and was eliminated. Powell also caught a break as only three started his heat and one of those three was disqualified. Powell still won his heat to advance to the semifinals. Powell came in second in his semifinal to become one of the four finalists and then came in third in the final to win the bronze medal.

Earlier in the day Powell finished 30th in the semifinals of the men’s K1 event. Powell had just two penalties but his total of 97.75 was over six behind the ten final qualifiers. Also competing in the semifinals was Zachary Lokken in the men’s C1. Lokken finished 29th after picking up a 50 point penalty and finishing with a 164.65 score.

The next ICF Slalom World Cup event will be in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain next weekend from the 10th through the 12th.

Previous ICF Slalom World Cup Coverage:
Ivrea Preview
Friday Update