Joe Clarke fell short of a medal in his attempt to reclaim the canoe slalom title he won in 2016, finishing fifth on his return to the Olympics in a final dominated by a brilliant run from the Italian Giovanni De Gennaro.
The Stoke-on-Trent-born Clarke, who won the latest of his five world championship golds last year, had high hopes of a place on the podium having controversially missed out on selection for Tokyo 2020. Another stellar showing seemed possible when he qualified fastest from the semi-finals but, going out last of the 12 final competitors, he could not get near De Gennaro and finished 0.95sec short of the bronze medal winner, Pau Echaniz.
“It’s hard to put into words,” Clarke said. “I don’t think I did too much wrong, just a couple of mistakes. That was an immense final. The time differences are so finite and it’s hard to beat yourself up when it’s so close. I didn’t crumble under the pressure, I kept a clean run, so it’s hard to suggest.”
Clarke did not receive any two-second time penalties, handed out for making contact with any of the course’s 23 gates, and eventually suffered for briefly appearing to get bogged down around the seventh. “At six, seven, eight I just got slightly stuck there and had to correct it,” he said. “And that’s probably the difference between a podium and not today.”
He had been forced to wait 40 minutes while all of his rivals, including the deafeningly backed French silver medallist Titouan Castryck, laid out the size of his task. Perhaps that ramped up the pressure but he rejected any idea that it made a difference.
“Probably for those who are inexperienced,” he said. “But I’ve been there before and delivered under that pressure. The biggest amount of pressure was my internal pressure on myself wanting to medal. The crowd here, I just feed off it.”
This compelling sport, which demands that paddlers navigate a sequence of gates both with and against the stream, takes jaw-dropping levels of dexterity and mastery of swirling currents. A packed house saw the experienced De Gennaro, who became European champion for the first time in May, put together a near-flawless run in 88.22sec. The gold medallist from Tokyo, Jiri Prskavec, floundered at the seventh and 16th gates en route to finishing eighth.
All is far from lost for Clarke, who explained the presence of his young son, Hugo, in the crowd brought valuable perspective. “If I feel gutted right now I’ll walk over [to him] and be absolutely fine in five minutes’ time,” he said. “He’ll just be happy to see me.”
On Monday he will compete in kayak cross, a new Olympic event that permits contact between canoeists in negotiating a tumultuous course. “It’s another chance for a medal, and I think if being that close didn’t frustrate me enough it’s definitely added a few coals to the fire,” he said. “Fifth place today obviously wasn’t what I came here for.”
