Sunday, July 08, 2018

FLATTACH - BEAUTIFUL SETTING, CONGRATULATIONS IN ORDER

Fantastic setting for our next phase of the tour, beautiful Flattach in Austria.  Here our crew were competing in the next ECA Junior Cup.   Flattach is a wonderful natural course, nestled in the snow-capped Austrian Alps.  A sense of lower course Kawerau / Tekapo...  Deceptively simple course, with a few tricky challenges thrown in for good measure.

Some great results for the kiwi contingent.  Special congratulations to George Snook, who won GOLD in the K1 Men U16.  And to Casey Hales, who scored a BRONZE in the K1 Women U18.

This event was run by a small family group of Austrians with a long history in slalom.  Gerard, Doris and the team did a wonderful job in organising the event...

Very happy to meet up again with the Bells, the Rayners, and Hales/Bostons.  Our support team did an great job in helping our athletes - creating gastronomic masterpieces (on a limited budget), providing moral support, and lending a hand in judging the races!

We were also pleased to meet the parents of our esteemed junior coach, Bertrand.  Jose and Francine Guterriez were embraced into the kiwi fold...

And we were also very happy to meet Miro Matejka again (one of our 2017 tour coaches).  He helped admirably with coaching with Bertrand heading off on the last day on best man duties in France.