Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) canoeist Alana Nicholls has claimed her first gold in the women’s K1 500 metres at the ICF World Cup 2 at Račice, Czech Republic from 20 –22 May.

25-year old Nicholls cruised to victory, powering home in the last 200 metres from 4th place, recording a time of 112.749 seconds, ahead of Denmark’s Henriette Engen Hansen (113.542). Great Britain’s Rachel Cawthorn finished in third place.

Nicholls has already achieved outstanding success in the World Cup Series after claiming silver and bronze in the women’s K1 500 and 200 metres respectively.

‘It was really tough at the beginning, I wasn’t sure if there was a head wind, or whether it was swirly, and so I didn’t go out as hard as I usually would,’ Nicholls said.

‘All the girls were there with about 200 metres to go, so I knew I was going to have a little in the tank for the end, so was good to come home with a kick and come away with the win.’

In other strong results for AIS athletes Murray Stewart teamed up with David Smith to win silver in the men’s K2 1000 metres, 1.693 seconds behind Russia’s Vitaly Yurchenko and Vasily Pogreban (195.241). Portugal’s Joao Ribeiro and Emanuel Silver finished in third place.

Later that day, Stewart and Smith continued their great form combining with AIS team mates Tate Smith and Jacob Clear to claim silver in the men’s K4 1000 metres—narrowly defeated by .027 seconds behind the Belarus crew, which claimed victory.

Nicholls credits her West Australia Institute of Sport coaches Ramon Andersson and Michael Pond for helping improve her finishes, paddling technique and efficiency through the water.

Andersson was delighted to see Nicholls execute the race plan they had been working on in training.

‘We looked at her excellent form in the heats/semis and noticed she was probably overdoing it at the starts in the first ten seconds, so we worked on saving some of that energy for a good kick at the end.’

Nicholls is looking forward to the ICF World Cup 3 taking place from 27-29 May in Duisburg, Germany and has set her sights on qualifying for the London 2012 Olympic Games.