OUR FABULOUS FOUR...SO FAR!

After our first two days of racing in unpredictable weather reaching temperatures in the mid 30’s with  threatening thunder showers, we have four paddlers that have made the semi finals!  

Our U23 C1 paddlers started the event off on a very difficult C1 course.  James Thwaite, Callum Gilbert and Patrick Washer all had two attempts at making the semi finals in a field of 60.  James had an exciting first run with loosing his paddle for a couple seconds placing 53rd and his second run put him in 36th place.  Callum Gilbert hopped into Otis’ boat for the first run which put him in 38th place and used Kaydi’s boat for his second run which placed him 31st.  Patrick Washer had two solid runs.  He placed 29th in the first run (only the top 20 went thru directly to the semis) and placed 12th in his second run, just missing out on the top 10 going thru to the semis.  

Our junior C1 paddlers experienced their first world class event.  It was exciting watching them paddle on this very difficult C1 course.  Out of 58 competitors, Callum Aitken placed 53rd, Otis Rayner placed 52nd, and Josh Bell placed 46th in their first runs.  Josh had a great second run improving his time by 19 seconds to place 23rd, Otis placed 31st, and Callum 37th.

Our K1 teams - both U23 and Junior - were very successful today.  Finn Butcher took out the field of 75 and placed 2nd.  Jiri Prskavec, the European Champion and the Czech Republic’s 2016 olympian, beat him by 1.76 seconds.  Callum Gilbert also put down a great run and placed 10th.  Both Finn and Callum go directly to the semis on Friday.  Theo Pepper placed 55th in his first run and 45th in his second.  Very tough competition for the paddlers here and Theo was right in all the action with a borrowed boat and short build up to the event.

Our two junior paddlers, Zac Mutton and Callum Aitken, both made it into the semis on their first runs!  Very exciting stuff when both of them could have been a lot cleaner.  In the field of 79, Zac placed 24th with 10 penalties and Callum placed 27th with 8 penalties.  We are all looking forward to Friday’s Semi Finals racing starting at 10:50am for the U23 and 4:05pm for the Juniors.

Kaydi O’Conner-Stratton and Kelly Travers raced well today.  The top 15 paddlers went thru to the semis in the first run and the top 5 went thru in the second runs.  Kaydi placed 28th in her first run and 18th in her second run.  Kelly placed 27th in her first run and 12th in her second run.

OPENING CEREMONIES

The team gathered in the main square of Krakow to officially open the 2016 U23/Junior World Championships with 47 other nations.  It was a scorching 35 degrees so team shorts and white tops and water were on order.  Official speeches were giving by the ICF dignitaries followed by local cultural and modern dancing.  

We had a delicious team dinner at Kogel Mogel partaking in many local specialities:  Boczniaki podsmazane (oyster mushrooms), Pate z resiny (Goose pate), Tradycyjny choldnik litewkie lub chlodnik z ogorka i miety (Traditional cooler soup made of beetroot, cucumber and egg), Pierogi’s (dumplings), Kaczka marynowana (roast duck), Nozka z gesi (roasted leg of goose), Kopytka z maselkiem (potato noodles with butter), and much more ….. 

START TIME ADJUSTMENTS

We were a little too fast off the mark to give you the true start times for all the athletes.  Here are the bib numbers and corrected start times.  You are able to watch live stream on https://www.youtube.com/user/CanoeKayakTV.

TUESDAY (Polish time) 12 July
C1Mens U23  60 Competitors

James Thwaites  Bib 22 Start time 12:54
Callum Gilbert   Bib 20  Start time 12:55
Patrick Washer  Bib 17 Start time 12:58

C1Mens Juniors  58 Competitors

Callum Aitken  Bib 57  Start time 13:21
Josh Bell  Bib 54  Start time 13:24
Otis Rayner  Bib 25 Start time 13:53

WEDNESDAY (Polish time) 13 July
K1Mens U23  75 Competitors

Theo Pepper  Bib 60  Start time 9:45
Finn Butcher  Bib 14  Start time 10:31
Callum Gilbert  Bib 9  Start time 10:36

C1Womens U23  39 Competitors

Kaydi O'Conner-Stratton  Bib 29  Start time  11:00
Kelly Travers  Bib 17  Start time  11:12

K1Mens Juniors  80 Competitors

Callum Aitken  Bib 49  Start time 15:01
Zac Mutton  Bib 7  Start time  15:43
Daniel Tuiraviravi  Bib 4  Start time  15:46

THURSDAY (Polish time) 14 July
K1Womens U23  49 Competitors

Kaydi O'Conner-Stratton  Bib 44  Start time  9:35
Courtney Williams  Bib 43  Start time  9:36
Anna Higgins  Bib 24  Start time  9:55

K1Womens Juniors 55 Competitors

Kensa Randle  Bib 12  Start time  13:43

FRIDAY 15 July
SEMI FINALS

SATURDAY 16 July
FINALS- C1M, C1W, K1M

TEAMS
C1Mens U23
Patrick Washer/Callum Gilbert/James Thwaite  Bib 14  Start time 13:32

K1Mens U23
Finn Butcher/Callum Gilbert/Theo Pepper  Bib 12  Start time  15:07

C1Mens Junior
Callum Aitken/Josh Bell/Otis Rayner  Bib 8  Start time  15:59

K1Mens Junior
Zac Mutton/Callum Aitken/Otis Rayner  Bib 15  Start time  17:09

K1Womens U23
Anna Higgins/Courtney Williams/Kaydi O'Conner-Stratton  Bib 7  Start time  13:25

SUNDAY 17 July
FINALS - K1W, C2M (May have been shifted..TBC)

CRANKING UP FOR KRAKOW

The U23/Junior Team have been training everyday rotating their time slot from 4pm to 8am to 6pm to 3pm.  We have one more 1/2  hour training slot tomorrow at 8:30am then the course will be set and the competition begins.

TUESDAY Patrick Washer, James Thwaites and Callum Gilbert start off the racing at 12:15pm (10:15pm on Tuesday night) in the U23 C1 category.  Second runs start at 1:20pm (11:20pm NZ Tuesday night).






TUESDAY the Juniors - Josh Bell, Callum Aitken and Otis Rayner - have their first runs at 2:30pm (12:30am Wednesday morning NZ time) and have their second runs at 4:43pm (2:43am Wednesday morning NZ time).






WEDNESDAY begins the competition for K1 Mens and C1 Womens.  Callum Gilbert, Finn Butcher and Theo Pepper will be racing at 9:15am (7:15pm Wednesday night)  followed by Kelly Travers and Kaydi O’Conner-Stratton.  Second runs at 11:45am (9:45pm Wednesday night).












WEDNESDAY Zac Mutton and Callum Aitken have their first runs at 2:30pm (12:30am Thursday morning NZ time) and second runs at 5pm (3am on Thursday morning NZ time).






THURSDAY Anna Higgins, Courtney Williams, and Kaydi-O’Conner-Stratton will be racing K1 Womens starting their first runs at 9:15am (7:15pm Thursday evening NZ time) and their second runs at 11am (9pm NZ time).







THURSDAY Kensa Randle will be racing in the Junior K1 Womens at 1:25pm (11:26pm on Thursday NZ time) and her second run will be at 3:25pm (1:25am Friday NZ time).



All racing will be live streamed through Canoe Planet on youtube.  Go onto canoeicf.com and look for a link to take you to the days racing.  We will try to provide a link once it is up and going.

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE WEILICZKA SALT MINE AND DOWNTOWN KRAKOW

With the team training slot allocated at 4pm, we had a sight seeing excursion to the Unesco World Heritage site of the Weiliczka Salt Mine. on the outskirts of Krakow.  Production started in the 13th century and the mine produced table salt continuously until 2007.  

The mine is 327 metres deep and has numerous chambers at every level.  It has approximately 300 kilometres of tunnels.  There are many statues and four chapels carved out of the rock salt as well as underground lakes of brine.  

The miners used a variety of different methods to bring the 800 kilogram salt cylinders to the surface which included the Hungarian-type horse treadmill and Saxon treadmills.  The salt is naturally grey in various shades and only becomes white when ground.  

We also spent an afternoon in Krakow's old town & market square including a visit below the Cloth Hall which dominates the largest medieval market area in Europe.  In 2005 a major archeological excavation took place in the town square uncovering layers of history dating back to the 12th century.  The area was reinstated but retaining part of the excavation with the exposed layers of historical human habitation seen in the underground museum.

Due to being on the road for a good week or more for the team members, we had to come back into town another day to do laundry.  Kelly joined this trip to replace her 4 month old Apple cell phone that stopped working and Theo came along to have a second visit with the dentist.  A tooth that he had previously had work on in New Zealand became sore and infected.  With the help of Agnieszka Grudzinska, the former CSNZ chairman who is Polish and here as an ICF international judge, found a dentist to relieve Theo's pain.  In fact, Theo was quite impressed with his treatment and only had to pay for his two visits around $75 NZD (draining, drilling, antibiotics, and re-filling).  Theo has had an unsettling first week with having to borrow boats from the British team and the Polaczyk's but after today is sorted and happy with a Galasport that just about fits him brought in from Prague which he will use for the racing.  From the picture, you can see Theo, our gentle giant, is back on form and in his element.

A quick visit to Wawel Royal Castle including a viewing of Leonardo di Vinci's "Lady with an Ermine" painting being a national Polish treasure.  No pictures were allowed but one was taken thru a crack in the door...only to be photo bombed by Kelly.

Gordon found a natural history museum which featured the worlds only complete Wooly Rhinoceros that was recovered from a Ukrainian swamp in 1929 along with mammoth remains from 30,000 years ago.