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RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- London 2012 Olympic silver medalist Jessica Fox from Australia survived the heats in the women's K1 of the 2016 Olympic Games canoe slalom competition here on Monday.
Fox, the 2015 world champion, was handed a two-second penalty for touching a pole and finished in eighth place in the first run. She came from behind to secure a second place in the second run and was second placed overall to qualify for the semifinals.
"I made a big mistake in my first run so I knew I had to put down a good second run to qualify," said Fox.
"I was actually a bit uncertain before my (second run) start if I was qualified. I was trying to do the maths to see if I was well enough placed or not to be in the top 15, and in the end I thought I should stop thinking about that and just focus on my run."added she.
Stefanie Horn from Italy surprisingly became the leader in the event.
In the men's C2, Slovakian cousins Ladislav Skantar and Peter Skantar posted the fastest time of the heats in their first run to qualify ahead of Olympic debutants Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Peche from France.
"It was quite good because it was very hard to make the first run in the Olympic Games," Peche said. "It is a big race so I think we made a good one. The second run was better so we'll see for the next few days and the semifinals."
