In to the future....

Today was the first day of the future. From now on we will have a junior world champs every year instead of the old unfair system of every 2nd year which  meant some people never got to race at the top of their game. Also this event is the first ever under 23 world championships which fills a big gap in our sport.
Here are some comments from the paddlers below, followed by some photos.

So,
First day of racing is over. For the three junior boys this was our first taste of a junior world competition. It was an amazing experience, starting with the opening ceremony last night. The city of Wausau put on a grand welcoming for the athletes. And got us pumped for the racing. Today, personally I just wanted to get started! Our class started at 3pm which left a large amount of the day to learn the course and get our lines down. I am stoked to be in the semis in 27th place. Ready for a shot at making the finals. I need to improve a bit to have a chance. But hey, its canoe slalom. Anything can happen! My goal is to do my best, have a clean run and do all of the moves to the best of my ability. If I do that, I'll be happy.
Thanks for your support! Finn Butcher

Hey The whole competition so far even the opening ceremony last night has been pretty cool as this is my first junior worlds, my biggest race by far!!! Had heats today had two kind of average runs. Didn't make any big mistakes or anything but a few places in each run where I could of made up a couple of seconds. But in both my runs I has two touches , just small ones which was super annoying. I wanted to see what my chances were like of making the final and see where I placed amongst all the other boys who I had no idea how most of them paddled. I ended up placing 24th but if i was clean I would be very close to making the to 10. So now Semis friday HAVE to be clean and solid. Tomorrow going down to cheer on and support the c1 u23 and jess for their heats. Chur - Cole O'Connor-Stratton.

Geoff's race didn't quite go as he would have liked today. On first runs he got a 50 on the last but one gate and on 2nd runs he had 2 spin outs which unfortunately left him sitting in 41st place just 0.12 seconds out of the semi finals. I have to say though, it's pretty impressive that Geoff even made it to the startline. He has been having shoulder problems since January and has been in lots of pain during training. Good on you Geoff for working through it all and making it to you first World Champs, may there be many more.

It was good to watch the younger boys and give them some support for their runs. All of them racing well for their first World Championships. Most of My day was spent trying to stay cool from the heat and relax for tomorrows racing, also good to have a sleep in than our 6-7am wake ups. The C1s are off around 11:30am US time and Jess is off at 3pm US. feels weird racing in a age group race once again after finishing off juniors two years ago but good to get on the start line once again for the season. Ben Gibb

 Kellie Bailey judging at gates 1 to 4.

 Geoff in the pre start area.

 Jess checks out the top of the course