News

50 penalty points for missing a gate in the Women K1 Semi Final cost Kate her spot in the Final. Her net time would have seen her in the top 5 so she was clearly disappointed knowing that she had the speed to have a shot at the medals.

After a shaky Semi Final Ros significantly improved in the Women C1 Final to become second behind team mate Leanne Guinea. Jessica Fox made the Australian hatrick complete by finishing third. Although this has not been an official World Championships event the competition was very strong with 22 paddlers from 13 countries.

The Australian Women C1 team shown on the picture above also lined up as forerunners in the team events on Saturday and produced the fastest time in the Final ahead of Spain, Great Britain and the USA.

You can check out the results on 123result.com.

Here is the schedule of today in Central European Time which is 8 hours behind Australian East Coast Time:

08:30 h - Semifinals C2 MEN
09:05 h - Semifinals K1 WOMEN
09:40 h - Semifinals C1 MEN
10:15 h - Semifinals K1 MEN
10:50 h - Semifinals C1 WOMEN
12:00 h - Finals C2 MEN
12:25 h - Finals K1 WOMEN
12:50 h - Finals C1 MEN
13:15 h - Finals K1 MEN
13:40 h - Finals C1 WOMEN

You can follow the results live on 123result.com.

Racing commenced yesterday afternoon, with the qualifications for the C2s and K1W. Ros had a solid first run which ranked her in 25th. I was also paddling well, except for a bit of a debacle in the middle involving a roll and a loss of about 8 seconds. Not ideal! With a top 20 cut-off to make the semi-final, we both needed to improve. Unfortunately Ros' second run was not as quick as her first, and she finished in 35th (in a field of 71 I will add - which is possibly the most ever in the K1W event at a World Championships, although that is an assumption based only on the World Champs I have been to...). I had a solid second run which was fast enough to get me into the semi in 12th. Overall the racing was quite tight, with not a lot of time between 1st and 20th, so it will be very interesting to see what happens in the semi and final!

Ros is racing today in the C1W event. There's a link to live results at worldseu09.parcolimpic.com There are also ICF and Australian Canoeing newsflashes going up on YouTube - see SportsceneTV and the Australian Canoeing channel

After a shaky first run in the Qualification race that put her outside the top 20, Kate had a fast second run that has put her in 12th position. This shows her strong potential to make the top 10 Final on Sunday. Team mate Sarah Grant also made the Semi Final in 18th. Ros placed in the top half of competitors in the womens K1, placing 35th.

Apparently the World Championship Qualification course was fairly straightforward with no major 'moves', making it very tight racing with no room for mistakes. Just six and a half seconds separated the top 20 women.

Ros will be looking forward to competing in the C1 women demonstration event tomorrow.

Tonight at the Penrith Valley Sports Foundation annual awards dinner I was honoured to receive the Senior Sportstar of the Year award for the 08/09 year. Thank you to Panthers for sponsoring the award. Penrith Valley Sports Foundation does a great job recognising the achievements of local athletes and supporting sporting careers.

Yesterday evening the World Championships week kicked off with the Coaches running race to the church on the hill – somewhat of a tradition here in Seu. There was a great turnout, with over 30 competitors. A large number of athletes were out to support their coaches, cheering them along from support vehicles, then trying to make it to the church before the winner. Australia had four competitors (the most we’ve ever had I suspect): Mike, Myriam, Yann and Patrick (our physio). Patrick led the Aussie charge, coming 5th (in true Aussie style wearing an ‘I feel a XXXX coming on’ singlet). There were many prizes other than 1st, 2nd and 3rd, including worst outfit (won by Sweden), oldest competitor (Austria), previous Olympic Champion that didn’t win this race (Germany) and maximum time (I won’t mention who won that, as she would probably kill me!). I personally think that Mike should have got a prize for best face as approaching the finish line (see photo!). We are hoping that Tash (our team manager) will compete next year to increase the number of women racing.

We have been in Seu for two weeks now, preparing for the World Championships, which begin this Thursday. Training has been going very well. Ros spent the first week taking part in the C1W camp organised by the ICF, which involved 20 women from 12 different countries and five coaches. The camp was amazing, everyone who participated improved tremendously and will no doubt look impressive on the water for the race. See canoe.org.au for more. The rest of the Aussies also got in some quality training and re-familiarisation with the water before it started to get crowded, with more and more teams arriving through last week.

An important part of preparing for such a big race is avoiding thinking about it toooo much and getting stressed out about it. Being in a beautiful and interesting country, we have been able to do that quite well. Last weekend was the town's fire festival - involving people dressed as devils chasing you through the streets and shooting fireworks at you at close range. It was pretty nuts, and luckily the locals and those on the team who had experienced the festival before warned us to cover up. See youtube.com to get an idea of what it was like! That night was part of a four-day festival, involving much partying on the part of the locals, and a little less sleep for us - due to the music going till about 7am each morning! This weekend just gone most of the team went away for the weekend to relax and rest up before our final three training sessions and the race. Kate and Leanne went to Roses, on the Costa Brava, for a lazy beach weekend. Ros decided to stay in Seu and be studious, finishing a uni assignment.

We now have three more days before racing starts! See worldseu09.parcolimpic.com for race information. Our K1 qualification race is on Thursday afternoon, and the C1W demonstration event on Friday. Teams is on Saturday, and Semis and Finals on Sunday.

Well I'm glad I didn't know what I was in for when I agreed to join the 'Heart & Soles' team for the Oxfam 100km trailwalker, because then I might not have done it! It was a somewhat gruelling walk up and down steep bush trails mostly in the dark, ending at the 60km mark for me, where I pulled out due to painful knees (I never thought I'd prefer uphill to downhill). But it was an amazing experience and worth the pain, because I met some great people and we raised money for a great cause. It was quite emotional being at the finish line to watch my teammates Marcelo, Kelly and Gab reach the end of the 100km, knowing what an ordeal they'd been through, 40km more pain than I had endured!

Now, with my blisters subsiding and knees healing, I'm thinking about next year - perhaps with more than 1 day preparation this time!

Marcelo has done a great job writing our story on the team website, read about it at www2.oxfam.org.au

Thank you to our wonderful support team Danielle, Celeste, Taylor, Mario and Eddie

For old news click here