Wow - what a rollercoaster of an event. The team worked fantastically together to push for the best performances.

It was a championships of 1sts:

• 1st time since 1975 we had 2 medals in a single category
• 1st time since 1975 we have won a world championships
• 1st time since 1989 that we have had individual medalists  
• 1st time ever we have won an individual class
• 1st time since 1981 that we had 2 mens kayaks in the top 10
• 1st time since 1995 we have challenged for a medal in C2 team (so close!)

The GB team proved it was able to paddle both tough and easy water and still be competitive. It is a great credit to the whole teams preparation and commitment. 

At the end she led by 0.54 seconds to become the first ever GB individual World Champion. It was a GB 1-2.

The anthem was sung, tears were shed.

Let us not forget that Jonnie Schofield came 4th, Ben Oakley 9th, Sandra 8th. All awesome performances.

What a great year. What a great championships for us. Even though half the time it is an individual race, it truly is a team sport. We cannot thank enough the excellent event coaching team with us here Alan, Neil, Phil and Jon. Legends all of them.

I'm getting all emotional again now, time to sign off,  xx. 

The feedback from the 0900 Team Leaders meeting was quite clear. "There will be no racing today. We are developing an alternative plan. We will meet again at 1545 to review the next steps."

So there has been another opportunity to learn how to rest.  

Peter Keron took a ride on his bicycle up the valley, he was set the mission to find some snow and bring it back still frozen but this did not transpire. He went to the race start and back. Others were less energetic, a few movies (Kill Bill, Date Night, Pineapple Express) have been watched, some "work down the wire" has been achieved and a few international rounds of the "name game" filled at least an hour or so. The coffee bar crawl was a popular event but in the end resulted in only one venue visited.

So now we have Plan B. The courses have been changed to run from below the town of Sort. The river is still very high and whilst the courses appear straight forward with no difficult manoevers to make, good rough water athleticism is required to perform well. The river is wide, fast flowing with many surging waves. The news of this change filtered out to all the teams at 1730, this meant that about 150 paddlers were all trying to practise the new course at exactly that time. It was busy.
So the Team Sprint runs will go at 1000 and 1200hrs. The Team Classic will start at 1600. Masters classic will run before the Classic Team.

Unfortunately Hannah is sick and Tim has become injured, possibly the delay will ensure recovery can be made, but tomorrow will be a very busy day, 3 race runs to do. We're an adaptable bunch and mentally tough so expect to handle it enthusiastically.

In amongst all the turmoil there is one with some foresight (and an overly long slightly greying head of hair). Team Manager Christie has highlighted the packing plans as an early departure is needed on Monday morning. Crikey, that seems a long way away but he has a point, make sure your kit gets into the correct vehicle.

The feedback from the 0900 Team Leaders meeting was quite clear. “There will be no racing today. We do not know what the plan will be. We will meet again at 1700 to review the next steps.”

Thanks to Jes Oughton and Peter Schofield for these images. 

Races today were C1, MK1 and Ladies C1. The drama for Team GB had started well before racing. Ben's buoyancy aid had failed scrutineering, it had the floatation of a brick, but at 1000hrs no replacement had arrived and emergency scrutineering was closed. C2 front man and all round good chap Simon Goulding loaned him a suitable garment and all of a sudden we were praising the organisers for running the individual races over 2 days. However, when, at only 1 hour before the MK1 race start the bus, Pete Keron and Ben Oakley were spotted outside the accommodation alarms bells started to ring. Lots of chin scratching and pointing indicated a large split in the back hull of Bens boat. During final practise he had "tapped" his back end in the rapid called "slapper"........ an uncharacteristic minor error but potentially Titanic. This was to become Dave Kelly's finest moment with 20 minute epoxy. "Sort"ed. It seems to have been missed by most observers that PK had returned to collect a cag-deck.

 Ben's race was also not without incident. Matty Harrison had outdone the Swiss in the cowbell stakes and whilst banging his little heart out on the metallic donger his jaw dropped as Ben made a text book upstream manoeuvre under the frantic GB fans. "It just wasn't working today" he said.

 

Pete Keron was pleased with his race, appearing slightly bemused at the finish, as though the whole thing had given an unpredicted positive effect on his well-being. He is already engrossed in the Kick The Waves web site, could this be a new boat ahead of 2 years time for Bourg? Let's hope so. (Is a boat build quality review from Ben required?)

 

During the afternoon a strong headwind had developed, possibly Tomas Slovak had predicted this as 

his early start position and race time meant he held the lead for 45 minutes (remember Gickler in 93?) before Ronan Tastard bettered it. The Czecks held on to 6th, 7th and 8th, ominous for the team racing. (They must have had a hangover)

 

Michael was also happy with his performance, no real drama to report, except a good charge at the main wood-yard stopper wave, it's on video (apparently)

 

Loich Vynisale, 1st place, panicked at boat weighing and threw a rock into his boat. This only served to arouse the suspicions of the boat checkers who meticulously dried out his boat and checked for loose items before confirming that it was legal.

 

Matthew French was gutted to be the 4th Australian to finish, hence no team race for him, this feeling did not last long.... ... free beers at the finish if you are accredited.

 

Sandra and Jessica have ear to ear grins and appear to be gradually getting more and more excited, we hope they sleep well and carry the grins into tomorrow. It appears that the C2 of Bradburn and Cartwright are also building their own excitement as they enthusiastically rub down the hull of their boat.

 

Hannah's guns are still the envy of all the boys though she continues to refuse the challenge to bench press a 70kg man. Possibly on Friday?

 

This evenings task: - consume significant volumes of carbohydrate, anyone eating more than Hannah gets a prize.

The Noguera Pallaresa river has been running high after a winter with plenty of snow and rain. We are, however, assured of stable water levels during theracing but the temptation to check the water flow web sites every couple ofhours remains.

Congratulations to the following athletes who have been selected to represent Great Britain at senior competitions in 2010

There will be footage published each day on the WWTV Italia website.

Thanks to Ben for tracking this footage down.

Peak UK are offering 30% discount to 2009 team paddlers. Please pool your orders, and put them in together to help Peak.

Peak UK Kayaking Co Ltd
Unit 29
Nottingham South & Wilford Industrial Est.,
Off Ruddington Lane
Nottingham
NG11 7EP
Tel: 0115 9816622  Fax: 0115 9816677
www.peakuk.com

This is the helmet cam footage from the first run on the Adda river, Sondrio Italy. This is the course which the juniors raced last year, and will be the second half of the seniors course. The additional 8 mins above the course is as tough, if not tougher that the first couple of minutes of the footage.

The first 90 seconds, to just below the bridge is the sprint course that will be used for the seniors.