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!

C1W Camp

Team Guinea has arrived in La Seu d'Urgell, Spain for the finally leg of their journey. The next 2 and a half weeks will be spent training on the site where the World Championships will commence on September 10th. 

In conjunction with the World Championships, the ICF is running a Womens C1 training camp in Seu. 21 paddlers from 12 different nations are taking part and getting some quality coaching from a range of international C1 coaches. It is great to see so many women paddling C1s! Hopefully this is just the beginning! For information regarding the upcoming World Championships in La Seu d'Urgell visit  http://worldseu09.parcolimpic.com

Slovenian Open

GOLD! After a heat and semi final run riddled with penalties, Leanne was able to put down a fantastic finals run penalty free which landed her in 1^st place! Well done to Caroline Loir and Ros Lawrence who also finished on the podium.

The Guinea brothers put in a solid performance during heats which progressed them through to the semis on Sunday, however despite a descent run it was not enough to make the finals.

All results from the weekend can be found at the following link.

The atmosphere at the race was unbelievable – Mexican waves, saucepan lids being banged, a HUGE Kauzer cheer squad, country theme songs…. the World Championships at Tacen next year will definitely be something to look forward to!  

Parallel Slalom night race

In the lead up to the Slovenian Open this weekend a flat water parallel slalom race was held last night on the main canal running right through the middle of Ljubljana (basically like holding a slalom at Southbank in Melbourne). There were stacks of entrants (minus Team Guinea as there was no C1W or C2 class) and the banks of the river were filled with spectators, which also overflowed into the main square where a big screen was projecting the racing. Team Aussie did well with Ian and Christian making the round of 16 in C1, and the 3 Aussie girls (Ros, Kate and Sarah) all making it through to the top 8. Unfortunately Ros and Kate were drawn to race each other and in a tight race Ros advanced into the final against Corrina Khnule. Unfortunately the Austrian was too fast and took away the win.

Today Sarah, Susie and Leanne ticked another box on the to do list by cruising down to the coastal town of Opatija in Croatia for a day of relaxation. Definitely recommended! 

New Poll - Please Vote!

A new poll has been added to the Team Guinea website. It is a matter of pride for both of these sibling tribes so please vote! Scroll down to the very bottom of the Team Guinea webpage to vote.

Slovak Open – Semis and finals

Todays racing started at a much more decent hour than yesterday and Leanne had a fantastic start to her semis run however ran into trouble from gate 15 onwards and received a 50 on the final gate. This put in her 2^nd place heading into the final behind Ros Lawrence (AUS). Chris and Scotty also had a good start to their run however ran into trouble at the same gate, but managed to finish the course with no 50s and in a Steven Bradbury style semi final which saw C2 crew after C2 crew miss and recirculate gates, the boys finished in a very respectable 12^th place, narrowly missing out on finals.

Leanne was disappointed with her finals run which was solid until the second half again and her troubles with the final gate continued with a 50, resulting in 3^rd position. Well done to Caroline Loir of France who took out the gold.  

 

Team Guinea now moves onto Tarcen tomorrow for the final race of the Pro series. 

Day 1 Slovak Open - Bratislava

Team Guinea has had a relatively successful first day in the office at the Slovak Open. The C1W class started off the racing this morning at 7.00am!!! The course was incredibly difficult and all C1W competitors had major difficulties. I was able to put down a run with no 50s which put me into 1st place heading into semis tomorrow. Chris and Scotty had a solid run with a few penalties but it was enough to secure 17th place and a run in tomorrows semi final.
During the week Team Guinea did some sight seeing through town including viewing a few statues that are said to be very ‘lucky’. Hopefully the luck will be with us tomorrow.

Budapest...more like Budabest!

Scotty and Leanne along with Sarah and Susie took a well earned break from training in the lead up to the Slovak Open and made a fleeting visit across the border to Budapest, Hungary. The city is amazing, with many old remarkable buildings and statues. Definitely one of my favorite cities so far!
Chris and Scotty had to invest some of their hard earned cash into buying desert for Yann on Wednesday, after having to eject from their sinking C2 after Chris' deck popped on the first stopper. Luckily there was no damage to the boat or themselves!

Winning Ugly at the German Open

GOLD...Even if it was done with 2 very 'ugly' runs! The course that was set for the semi and finals seemed to be a little more straight forward than the previous day however Leanne had quite a few difficulties on both runs with a roll in gate 10 and 3 spins per run. Luckily it was enough and she was able to take away the gold medal. It was good fun racing under lights, there was a fantastic atmosphere, loads of spectators and a few carnival activities such as laser shooting, soccer kicking power, surfboard riding and a duck race.
Earlier in the day Chris and Scott combined with Phil (K1), Heather (LK1) and Christian (C1) to compete in the CAT 4 teams event. They had a solid clear run on an intense course which involved at least 4 up stream gates on each section and finished middle of the field in 7th.
Now the Australian contingent travels to Bratislava for the Slovakian Open next week. Information and results can be found here.

German Open day 1

Today the heats were held for the German Open in Leipzig. The course was quite tough and the Guinea brothers had two runs which in the words of coach Le Pennec 'gave him plenty of ideas for sessions to come'. Unfortunately the boys finished in 27th position and missed out on a semi finals berth. Leanne also had 2 less than desirable runs on the technical course however managed to hold the lead heading into the semi finals tomorrow. The semi finals and finals will be a twilight race held under lights starting at 6.00pm. Results and further information can be found here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS

Chris celebrated his 23rd birthday today in style with a whitewater paddle, shopping trip around the Leipzig town centre, ice cream and chocolate cake! How perfect! Hope you had a great day Chris.

German Open - Leipzig

Team Guinea is back together again! Chris and Scott arrived safely into Frankfurt airport yesterday with Glenn and Danielle before meeting up with the rest of the team (Heather Ceaser, Phil Gibbons and Ethan Hodgson) in Leipzig for the start of the Australian under 22s tour.
The boys are looking particularly professional after collecting their new camo printed C2 and have been enjoying fitting it out in their spare time.
Leanne has also made it to Leipzig after a 4.5 hour road trip across Germany with Yann and Heather. The little white merc treated us well and the soft racks even held up while travelling along the motorways!
We are now all training for the German Open this weekend, before moving to Bratislava for the Slovak Open and completing the World Series Circuit with the Slovenian Open in Tarcen.

Adventure in Oetz

Ros, Kate and myself decided to take a break from our hard training schedule at Augsburg and get away for a weekend of fun and adventure in Oetz, Austria. Over the 2 days we managed to fit in 2 river trips (Oetz and Inns) and climbed a 200m vertical cliff face using a via ferrate (a cable to which you are attached by 2 carabineers). We made some new raft guiding friends who taught us a traditional Austrian game called nails and witnessed the cost cutting measures taken in Austria for road works (using manikins rather than real humans!) I am now back in Augsburg for a final week of training before heading over to meet the rest of Team Guinea in Liepzig.