Czech Republic beats Britain for gold at women’s canoe championships

The Czech Republic beat Britain for gold Monday in the women's K1 event on the closing day of the canoe slalom world championships at Penrith Whitewater Stadium.

"Gold is just fantastic," said Czech team member Stepanka Hilgertova. "We had three very good individual times in our last races and we managed to put it together well."

"It wasn't a good second run, we had penalties, we had a slow time. But in the end we were still faster."

Under the team format, all three kayaks from each team are on the course at the same time, with the clock rolling when the first one crosses the start line and stopping when the third reaches the finish line.

It was Britain's first-ever silver medal at a canoe slalom world championship. Austria took the bronze.

France won two team gold medals Monday, the men's C1 and K1 events. "It was difficult to tell what was going to happen," said French C1 team member Pierre Labarelle. "We had a hard course and difficult wind so you never know how things will work out", reports the AP. I.L.