last day of racing

Another cloudless day although there was a bit of a cool breeze on the stands in the shade - heaps of spectators and a very full car park - we have been warned about gear going missing as teams begin to leave and pack up not only their own gear but others as well .... the British have lost paddles. Finals all morning with very exciting racing in K1w and C1m. This afternoon we had the last of the teams races with four teams from our group competing. 

First off were the K1WU23 girls of Anna, Robin and Haylee (doing a cameo appearance for this team). They had a number of touches and a couple of 50's and finished well back in the field - they were followed by the K1WU18 of Jess, Deahna and Haylee again - they also hit a number of gates, had 3 50's and Jess and Deahna both managed to fit in a roll as well - (they were looking for bonus points ....) 

Jess, on the roll, Deahna coming down

 The C1M of Ben, Shaun and Patrick did a better job of the course with no 50's but still finished well down the very competitive field - they worked well as a team but didn't have the pace of the top teams.

middle paddler Patrick followed by Shaun at the tail

 Finally the C1MU18 of Callum, Marcus and Tommy also did a better job of the course with no 50's but a pretty high number of touches meant they were well outside of the top finishing times. Fortunately during the breaks we were entertained again and again and again by the dancing girls - who had stepped up to matching costumes and by the end of the day were getting pretty good at the dance because they did the same one each time ..... the music for  this competed with the horns and drums and clackers and whirly gigs ( and trumpets today!!!!)and the announcer - but sometimes they just turned the dancing music off in the middle of the dance routine and the girls just kept dancing anyway or stood there with their hands on their hips - very funny -

yeah - go the dancing girls !!

yeah - go Slovakian horn lady!

 The day came to an end with the medal ceremonies for the days finals and the massive pack up operation for all the teams began - there were boats and trailers and people and vans and smelly kayaking gear everywhere. We had gained an extra 7 boats to try and load and it was a nightmare - the jigsaw of which ones go where is inside Martins head and he was working hard to fit them all in - we have ended up with boats inside the vans again but managed to just have them loaded on the bottom layer. Just need to fit the bags and paddling gear around them tomorrow morning and life will be sweet.
Headed home for dinner which was rounded off beautifully by the arrival of Claire and Roger Gilbert with chocolate, vanilla and caramel layered icecream, peaches and wafer rolls for dessert.Thank you very much - it was a great finish to our time here in this Penzion. Very early start tomorrow as we need to be up and loaded and away by 10 to 7 in the morning. We are heading to Bratislava to stop off and look at the course and have our lunch and then the long haul to Munich.

card games after dinner

Barbara and Callum .... 

Team outside the front door of Penzion Kristin - what a great bunch - (Tommy and the U23 have gone already)
Mr and Mrs Munro will be pleased with how much Dan has grown in height since he's been away, both Dale and Matthew are over 6 foot and he's nearly as tall as them ...