Luuka Jones misses out on Olympic glory

Despite New Zealand picking up it's first Olympic gold medal in the rowing - Rotorua paddler Luuka Jones was unable to do the same in the canoeing.

In her second Olympics campaign Jones wasn't able to use double scullers Nathan Cohen and Joseph Sullivan's gold medal winning performance to get past the semifinals of the women's slalom canoeing at the Lee Valley White Water Centre this morning.

The eventual winner was Emilie Fer of France in a time of 105.90.

Although Jones was clearly disappointed after her run, her 14th placing was a huge leap from finishing 21st in Beijing in 2008.

Jones was the lead out paddler in the women semifinal. The sports academy student from Waiariki Institute of Technology had a solid start on the tricky man-made course but as she came into gate nine of 23, Jones' blade struck the gate which appeared to slightly rattle the Tauranga born paddler.

Although she was able to recover for gate 10, the 23-year-old's head clipped gate 11 incurring a four second penalty for both infringements.

Jones had no difficulty with gate 19, which caused havoc for her sports academy team mate Mike Dawson, in the men's semifinal yesterday.

The kayaker managed the rest of the course without incident however her time of 121.41 was never going to be fast enough to see her through to the next round.

It was the run of Australian Jessica Fox who had the 12,000 plus crowd buzzing after she qualified 8th fastest in a time of 112.63 in the semifinal.

The Aussie battler threw caution to the wind, in her finals run to register a time of 106.51 which saw her holding first place until Fer's run.

The classy French woman was a fraction of a second down after the first split but managed to pull it back with a strong second half of the 250m course to eventually go ahead by just 0.61 of a second to take gold.

Spain's Maialen Chourraut picked up the bronze in a time of 106.87 with three time world champion, Slovakia's Jana Dukatova finishing fourth in a time of 110.48.

Rotorua rower Julia Edward was unable to repeat her Munich World Cup winning performance with rowing partner Louise Ayling in the lightweight women's double scull.

The pair finished fifth behind Great Britain's Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking in their semifinal last night and will race in the B final tomorrow night.

Women's Canoe Slalom Final results.

1. Emilie Fer, France, 105.90.

2. Jessica Fox, Australia, 106.51, +0.61.

3. Maialen Chourraut, Spain, 106.87, +0.97.

14. Luuka Jones, New Zealand, 121.41, +13.62.