Davidson’s brilliant bronze on world stage

New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship athlete Codie Davidson delivered a fantastic finish for Team Australia at the 2024 ICF Junior and Under 23 Canoe Slalom World Championships, winning bronze in the Women’s Junior Kayak Cross overnight.

It’s the second year in a row that the Western Sydney Whitewater Club paddler has won bronze at the Junior World Championships, taking out third place at last year’s event in Krakow, Poland – an effort that brought her brother to tears.

The 17-year-old finished the final in third place behind Naja Pinteric of Slovenia and Spain’s Haizea Segura. 

A speechless Davidson said she was so pleased to repeat her bronze medal performance, with a cleaner run this year.

“This is amazing – I don’t know how else to explain it,” Davidson said. “Last year I made a mistake, and so had to go back, but I was lucky that someone else made the same mistake, so I got third.

“This year there were no mistakes, and I still came third,” she said.

While the Kayak Cross (formally known as Extreme Kayak) has been on the Junior and U23 World Championships program since 2018, the discipline will make its Olympic debut in Paris in 18 days time.

Davidson’s Kayak Cross bronze capped off a strong Junior and U23 World Championships campaign for Australia, which saw five top-20 results in the K1 and C1, and five paddlers progress to the Kayak Cross quarterfinals. 

Story by Paddle Australia

Photos: Damiano Benedetto