Silver success for Kiwi junior paddlers

Tauranga paddlers Luke Robinson and Dan Munro have won New Zealand's first-ever junior world championship medal in canoe slalom, picking up silver in today's C2 final in Penrith.

Robinson, 16, and 17-year-old Munro qualified sixth-fastest for the final but unleashed a faultless performance when it counted, finishing in 130.56secs.

They were 7.66secs behind top-qualifers Michael Matejka and Jan Vetrovsky (Czech Republic), with Poland's Adam Kozub and Jakub Brzezinski third in 135.06secs, after collecting four 2sec penalties.  Australians Steven Lowther and Brodie Crawford missed two gates after qualifying second, eventually ending in eighth.

Fellow Tauranga paddler Callum Gilbert also qualified for a final, finishing eighth in the K1 decider.

Gilbert qualified third-fastest and only picked up a single 2sec penalty but a small error on the tricky move at main wave saw his podium chances slip away.  Austrian Mario Leitner edging Slovakian Vid Kuder Marusic for the gold medal.

In the junior women K1 the NZ girls had some problems on the difficult semis course, as did many others. Showing plenty of tenacity Kaydi finished 23rd and Kensa 24th.

Later in the day the K1 boys team of Theo, Callum and Alex put down a pretty solid performance to finish 6th ahead of some strong paddling nations.

The first day of qualifications are over at the Junior and U23 World Champs.
All the K1 Men (juniors and U23's) are through to the top 40 semis. Junior Alex Hawthorne the fastest qualifier of the kiwis with a solid second run recording a 100.3 Disappointment in the U23 K1 W for Jane Nicholas and Anna Higgins who finished 31st and 32nd to just miss the top 30 women's cut. Both on target in their second runs but incurred 50's. Haylee Dangen in her first year of U23 making it through in 28th in the strong field. The junior girls, both through also in the K1W, with Kaydi in 25th and Kensa on the bubble at 30th.The Junior C2 crew of Dan Munro and Luke Robinson have automatic progression to the finals due to the numbers starting but got some time on the course today in qualifications where they finished 6th.
Tommorrow are the quals for C1 and C1W.

The team before the opening ceremony.

The countdown is on with demos and opening ceremony tomorrow with racing starting on Wednesday.
Full schedule
The team has been training well and all seem relaxed and happy. Lots of time spent at the accommodation, hanging out with Australian friends , a smattering of homework, movies and computer games.
Parents are starting to arrive to support the NZ team and dropping in to say Hi- the support is really appreciated.
Good luck to those sitting their IJCSL, international judging exam.

First few days Junior& U23 World Champs 2014 Sydney, Australia

We are all are settled in and into a training routine.
The group is divided in two, with split training sessions twice a day for now, before nation training starts on the 19th.  Our accommodation is working out well at the Nepean River Holiday Park, where we have 6 villas and the large function room/kitchen where we meet for all meals.
To fill in the time between trainings athletes are doing Uni or school work, watching movies and the inevitable trips to the mall to fill in the day. The photos give a snap shot of action around the venue.