GOLD SILVER AND BRONZE at the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!

After getting a 50 second penalty on my semi final run I was ranked in 7th position heading into the final, Ros in 4th and Jess ranked 1st! I put down a run which I was very happy with on the difficult course despite hitting the last gate and finished on 137.80 with the GOLD! At the time Carolin Loir of France thought she had finished in 2nd place however a late 50 second penalty was added to her time moving her into 8th position. Ros Lawrence (AUS) finished in 2nd place on 143.10 and Jess Fox rounded out the 1, 2, 3 Aussie domination on 145.41. For all the results check out the ICF webiste  

Earlier, the 3 Aussie C1W used the forerun for a practice teams run for next years World Championships. Fortunately for us... and disappointingly for the crowd there was next to no carnage and  the Aussie girls finished clear ahead of the field of 4 by over 50 seconds. 

Now Team Guinea heads home for a few weeks of rest and relaxation before starting off the new season. 

Qualifications over!

In the women's C1 event today, Leanne finished with 2 good but dirty runs placing her in 2nd position heading into semis behind Teng of China. Ros and Jess finished 3rd and 14th respectively meaning all 3 Aussies advance to the semi finals which will be held on Sunday. 

Unfortunately it was a tough day in the office for the other Australians today with Rob (22) missing out on semis by 0.06 and Will (24) by 0.4 seconds. Both Warwick (35) and Ian (30) were pushed out of the top 20 cut off due to a penalty. Other Australian results included Sam Lyons (51) and Robin Jeffrey (47). 

Tomorrows racing consists of Teams - at which Leanne, Ros and Jess will be doing a forerun prior to the start of racing. 

Chris and Scott were the first Australian boat off in the World Championships and showed everyone the massive improvements they have made over the past year since beginning C2. They had 2 very solid runs down the course unfortunately picking up a few penalties which put them out of the top 20 cut off. The boys finished in 31^st position and they have definitely benefited from the opportunity and experience.

Sarah and Kate put in 2 fast second runs to make it through to the semi finals on Sunday. Today the rest of the Australian team will be racing in the K1, C1 and C1W events.

World Championships 2009

The World Championships kicked off last night with the opening ceremony march through town followed by some interesting entertainment - suspended guitarists being raised and lowered and girls twirling suspended only by their hair. 

The racing starts this afternoon with the LK1 and C2 heats, with the MK1, C1 and C1W off tomorrow morning. For information and results check out the World Championship website. 

Inaugural World Championships Coaches Run

Who is the fittest slalom coach of them all? Well we had the pleasure of witnessing the gruelling  2009 coaches run from the course at La Seu d'Urgell up to the church on the hill. Impressively all coaches made the climb with the motivation of beer and trophies pushing them all the way. Australia had a strong representation including Mike, Myrium, Yann and Patrick (Team AUS physio) and were all very competitive. Thankfully none of them won the awards for worst outfit, most amount of flesh showing or the 'we thought you were going to win...but you didn't' award.

Weekend Getaway

In preparation for the World Championships this week, Team Guinea along with the majority of the Australian Team decided to have a weekend away from Seu to relax and recuperate. Leanne and Kate headed off to Roses in Costa Brava on the North East coast of Spain, the Guinea brothers, Ian and Sam headed a little further south to Barcelona. Both adventures were filled with soaking up the last little bit of sun, shopping and sea food before we head home in a week. 

C1W article

Check out the article regarding the ICF C1W training camp on the Australian Canoeing website.

Worlds Training - Week 1

The C1W camp is over and nation training slots have started in Seu. The camp was definitely a success and hopefully all of the girls plus more will be in Tacen for the first official C1W World Championships next year. 

The Aussie team went into town last night for the final night of the La Seu d'Urgell Festa which involved the fire festival. Luckily we were warned about the need to have minimal skin showing and got decked out in old clothes and scarfs. Some of the locals even went to the length of wearing gas masks and wetting their clothes to avoid the heat and flames. The fire festival started with a performance in the main square then continued with fire breathing devils dancing through the streets of Seu with fireworks with all the townspeople following and ended with everyone dancing in the main square. It was an amazing night!