Oliver earns debut World Cup medal

Rob Oliver is hoping to become the man to beat in paracanoeing after claiming silver in the men’s KL3 on day three of the ICF Sprint and Paracanoe World Cup in Poznan.

Oliver finished second behind Ukrainian Serhii Yemelianov with a time of 40.210 to earn his maiden World Cup medal, while teammate Jonny Young finished fifth as a successful event for the Brits continued.

The medal caps a brilliant period for Oliver, coming just three days after he won bronze at the European Championships on the same waters.

Oliver said: “I’m ecstatic. I came into this thinking there’s two more guys from outside Europe who’ve come into the field since the Europeans and they’re going to get into the mix but I managed to beat both of them which is great.

“I’ve had that chip on my back since Rio of beating Caio [Ribeiro De Carvalho] especially but it’s finally been done and, who knows, if I have a bit more sleep maybe I can be the guy to beat!

“(This gives me) loads of confidence, we know the plan is right. We haven’t hit the speed block yet either so we’ve still got that to come.

“It’s brilliant, it’s where we want to be now and it’s sort of out-performing where I should be, so it’s perfect. I’ll go back to Nottingham now and get back in the gym, start the season again in July and we’ll get the speed on.

“If we can get closer to Serhii this year that would be perfect. This is just a stepping stone year, next year’s the big year so same again please!”

Elsewhere, Jeanette Chippington came agonisingly close to securing a bronze medal in the women’s KL1 final with a time of 55.481 just a tenth behind Chilean Katherine Wollermann in third place.

Nick Beighton was also close to sneaking into a bronze medal position in the men’s KL2 final as his 42.735 was just three tenths behind the final spot on the podium.