This weekend the first two selection races took place on the Tarawera River, Kawerau. Course was designed by Bryden Nicholas and Vavrenic Hradileck from the Czech Republic, was a pretty tricky course with some tight staggers. Day 1 went pretty good for me, I went into the race with a clear head knowing exactly what I was going to do. I went down the course, paddling everything smoothly not cutting my lines and playing it safe in the difficult moves. I got off the river feeling it was a pretty solid run, then saw the results saying I was winning not only junior men but open men! Was a great surprise. Second runs I wasn't as focused only finding out my run time not so long before hopping on. I hit a rock whilst doing a tight stagger arriving late on the last gate in the sequence, then came in tight into the upstream, hitting it, then went a low into upstream 13, and making a mess of the bottom stagger. I was pretty disapointed with this run because of the number of small mistakes. Johann, Mike and Aaron the senior K1 Men had better second runs to push me down to fourth place, with Aaron Osborne taking out a win in the first selection race for K1 men.
Results:
136 K1M Callum Gibb U18 R1 92.83 0 92.83 R2 95.87 2 97.87 Best 92.83
140 K1M Mike Dawson Senior R193.45 2 95.45 R2 92.49 0 92.49 Best 92.49137 K1M Johann Roozenburg Senior R1 91.93 2 93.93 R2 91.3 0 91.3 Best 91.3138 K1M Aaron Osborne Senior R1 95.54 2 97.54 R2 91.2 0 91.2 Best 91.2
134 K1M Lukasz Polaczyk (POLAND) R1 89.64 2 91.64 R2 89.44 0 89.44 Best 89.44143 K1M Pierre Bourliaud (FRANCE) R1 89.56 0 89.56 R2 87.54 0 87.54 Best 87.54144 K1M Vavra Hradlek (C.REPUBLIC) R1 87.12 0 87.12 R2 86.19 2 88.19 B 87.12
90 C1M Shaun Travers U23 R1 134.54 4 138.54 R2 106.93 0 106.93 Best 106.9391 C1M Ben Gibb U23 R1 107.74 4 111.74 R2 104.78 2 106.78 Best 106.7892 C1M Shaun Higgins U23 R1 106.47 4 110.47 R2 105.65 0 105.65 Best 105.6593 C1M Brent Bastin U23 R1 103.65 2 105.65 R2 110.28 8 118.28 Best 105.65
94 C1M Denis Gargaud (FRANCE) R1 112.61 56 168.61 R2 95.3 2 97.3 Best 97.3
157 K1W Ella Nicholas U23 R1 119.01 4 123.01 R2 129.01 0 129.01 Best 123.01
154 K1W Katrina Van Wijk (CANADA) R1 118.28 4 122.28 R2 121.92 2 123.92 Best 122.28155 K1W Nikki Whitehead U23 R1 117.73 0 117.73 R2 115.84 2 117.84 Best 117.73158 K1W Louise Jull U23 R1 111.51 0 111.51 R2 112.25 2 114.25 Best 111.51159 K1W Luuka Jones U23 R1 102.24 6 108.24 R2 105.36 0 105.36 Best 105.36
Today, Sunday the 23rd racing was cancelled due to rain all last night and all today flooding the river, which was still rising from it's inital flow of 20 Cumecs, to 40 Cumecs, meaning the flow will be changing all day, and judging would be very difficult in these conditions. With only two races left I'll have to pull something out of the bag!
Results can be found here www.slalomnz.org.nz
Video of my first run..
Video of my second run..
Aaron Osborne's winning run..
