Race Photos

Thanks to Peter Ewing and Odette and Max Webster for taking photos of NZ team.

Team nearly home

We made the most of the final day and drove to Barcelona via Perpignan and a French village , Collioure, on the med. Had a final team lunch at a cute place on the beach.Watched  all sorts enjoying the stinking hot day and saw all sites from topless to an army group learning to kayak with camo gear and face paint. Kids all swam in the med and we wandered around before getting back in the car for the drive to Barcelona.  Arrived by 6.30pm and were on the bus into the city from the hotel by just after 7 to make the most of the last hours. Wandered up the famous La Rambla and absorbed the sites of thousands of tourists, street theatre, shops etc.  Had pizza dinner near the Placa Catalunya and then found the night bus home ( different to the one we caught in )  was 1.40 euro each so a much better idea than battling the traffic in the team van with kayaks on.  Up again early to get everyone sorted for airport-  brand new terminal , huge but not on GPS so took a wrong turn, so thought we might have cut it a bit fine. Anyway dropped kids and boats, parked , they got VAT forms stamped for gear , checked in, had breakfast with them then waved farewell. Felt a bit sad to see them go as it is always a great journey seeing everyone's first wide eyed impressions  to a few weeks later when everyone heads for home with a plethora of memories to treasure for a lifetime. Will update some photos, signing out for juniors 2010......

Finals Day

It was hard to believe that the last day had arrived.  The course was set, with not too many changes- same to gate 7,  then changes 8-14, the same move as the heats course from 14-15 (now 15-16)  then double up then a stagger . With semis racing there are lots of mistakes as the paddlers have to really go for it to make the cut of finals ( top 10). It was amazing to watch some of the top athletes make a silly mistake and their finals chances were over.eg  the Italian girl Clara Gai Pron number one qualifier in K1W rolled at gate 14  and that was it!!...
anyway to the NZ team-   first up C1W  and Jane ... paddled a great race and walked along with a happy smile and hadn't realised she had a 50 on downstream gate 12. We looked at the  video and then paid the 75 euro protest fee but it was upheld. - they said it was "half head" , flat time 155.74 + 54  .....  Pretty disappointing as that time medalled in finals.
Kelly did really well with a not so attacking run, and safely got all the moves to gain a 7th place and a finals spot.  Her finals run was similiar, keeping steady and not being overawed by the occasion she did really well.  -finishing 6th in the inaugural C1W junior world championships- a great achievement for Kelly and something to tell the grandkids. Time 179.08 clean.
Jessica Fox took the gold in 133.51 + 4
C1W is a developing class and the ICF had a training camp for developing this group for the future. At the moment not many countries are taking it seriously, with not many of the powerful slalom nations paddling  eg no Germans, Slovenians, Slovakians or Czechs in juniors. Am sure that will change especially if it becomes an Olympic class in 2016.
The K1 men-  Up first was Callum. Knowing how tight the K1 mens final would be the boys had to lay down a special run without errors and nailing every move.. Unfortunately this wasn't to be on the day. Callum had some trouble at gate 7 and then mucked up gate 14 . His time 115.97 +2  Carl had to recirc for 7 and his time ended up 140.30 + 4. Tight racing with 10 seconds from 1st-21st in K1M.
Callum, who was pretty disappointed ended up 23rd and Carl 37th.

Jessica Fox made it two gold medals and won K1 W ahead of Karolina Galuska ( Vlada from Galasports daughter).

Kids all safely home after the party last night and just about to get up and start the clean up. Driving to Barcelona ( approx 4 hours)  for the night then will put them all on the plane.
I will update in the next few days with some fantastic race photos taken by Peter Ewing and Max and Odette Webster from Australia- keep looking....

I am staying in Europe until after senior worlds so if you want to follow my travels  www.sjctravels.blogspot.com

Day 3 and Teams

Disappointing for K1 men  time was great but too many touches denied them a finals place. Exciting racing in finals.  At course now for C1W semis this morning- Jane and Kelly , followed by K1Men- Callum and Carl in semis. Course hasnt changed much but a couple of tricky moves added in.

Photos from yesterday...