Racing Friday

A beautiful sunny day, plus 29 and the course looked fanatastic. Demos at 10 revealed it had a couple of tough moves, one being a nasty stagger that subsequently got moved 50cm . Anyway racing was a complicated affair with the French national champs mixed in so every class had a whole section of French paddlers first. They have a ranking system here for races so if you are N1 you could enter. Being an international ICF ranking race 6 boats from each country were counted in this race so some of the French were in both races.
Up first C1 with 42 C1's it was tough for Shaun to make semis. The main aim for all the juniors is a good performance as in senior races with only 20 going through it will always be a big ask except for the C2 who have only 21 in their race. Shauns first run had a few mistakes and a 50 at the tricky stagger but he learnt from that and posted a pretty solid second run to finish well and ahead of all the Aussie juniors which is always good. I think his final placing was 33rd.
Jane didnt fare so well, same tricky stagger in run one caused her problems and a couple of 50's. The water flowing very fast and small mistakes very costly. Second run she was having a great run until gate 11 which was a downstream then a spin and then across a big wave to get the next downstream. Looked good until she lost balance and rolled. With the power of the water she was past a couple of gates and no chance of recovery. A great learning experience both mentally and physically.
Luuka raced really well and was in 12th after first runs, and after vid review fine tuned her performance to have another 'cracker', as kidda would say and ended up in 8th. If she can repeat that performance then a final and top 10 is very achievable.
Today is the C2 and K1M, I have just dropped Kidda and C2 ff for a big warm up then collected the morning baguettes and a delicious looking raspberry tart for a dessert treat tonight. Think I could get used to the French patisseries very easily but not good for the waistline. Our accommodation has worked out to be fantastic, kids have been in pool, we have had a BBQ and we eat outside at a picnic table that all 8 of us can fit at. Our hosts are really nice and the fact they speak English is a bonus for helping us find things. I have cooked every night here and team enjoying home cooked meals, even if basic spag bol last night.
The washing machine is great and we have dominted the back yard with a makeshift clothesline.
Will be another big day today as 120 K1 men to race. Last night we left the course at 7.30pm and all pretty tired.....More results later fingers crossed they are goodies.