Racing Merano

The fantastic weather left us as we awoke to thunder storms and rain. The racing started with C1 and Shaun our padder on the course. A very tricky course with almost no eddies, due to the rain, in a couple of upstreams and proved very challenging. Shaun did pretty well with a couple of recircs to avoid the 50's that seemed to be prevalent. His second run was heaps better but unfortunately a 50 on gate 11 spoiled his time.
Jane had a similiar fate on her first run with a 50 and a roll,and also improved in her second run.
Both missed the cut of top twenty for ICF race but still have the junior comp in the afternoon tommorrow, Sunday. The C2 looked great and had a very creditable 1st run with a time around 136 seconds finishing in 7th from the small, classy field of 11. They go through anyway tommorrow so second runs didnt have the same meaning and gave them a chance to work on a couple of ideas to go even better.
The afternoon was K1 men and Callum went pretty well to end up 28th after first runs from 44.
By second runs the river was even higher and I think more people got 50's than didnt so virtually no one improved their placing.
A pretty good effort overall in this race of heaps of top international paddlers. I keep reminding them that it is a mostly senior race and it is a great experience to be here at this level.
The C2 will race semis and hopefully get into finals (only 1 will miss). Then all will race the junior race in the afternoon where a brand new boat is up for grabs for the fastest... something to aim for. After that driving south to Savona for the night.
Still raining but fingers crossed for a sunny day tommorrow. Hope all well in NZ, cheers from us all website for results www.scm-kanu.org