A Championship of 1sts



The Noguera Pallaressa river in Sort, Spain provided a true classic test of wildwater racing skills; long continuous rapids which rewarded the skills of the more technical paddler and physical ability of the elite athlete.

River levels had been running high after a later than usual snow melt period, coupled with rain.

The team had very high hopes of medals in more than one event following a very successful European championships (winning Gold, Silver and Bronze in WK1 events and 2 Bronze medal in C2) and a stunning series of races at the World Cup in Tazmania (winning 18 medals in total from MK1, C2 and WK1 events – including Jessica Oughton taking the World Cup title for the first time).



Classic Individuals
The classic racing was spread over 2 days, with MK1 and C2 on the first day and WK1 and C2 on the second day. The levels for the men were high, but for the women the heavens opened overnight and brought the river to the highest levels the organisers were comfortable with. It is great credit to the skill of all of the paddlers who competed, and it was a wonderful day for GB with Hannah Brown taking Silver, just a fraction of a second ahead of Jessica Oughton in Bronze.

Rain stops play
The rain continued to fall, the river continued to rise to a dangerous racing level, resulting in 2 days of cancelled racing. Jon Schofield joined the team straight from the last World Cup flatwater sprint event, where he had won the 200m K2 with Liam Heath convincingly. The team now was complete – we just needed a course to race on. Racing was switched to an easier section below the town. The course was still good and bouncy water – just much safer in high waters.

Team Racing day



Day 5 proved to be a very full day, practise on the new sprint and classic course – then racing the sprint team events in the morning and classic teams in the afternoon.

The womens sprint K1 team of Jessica Oughton, Hannah Brown and Sandra Hyslop took a bronze medal, just 0.2 out of 2nd after 2 runs. The C2 team were a little disappointed not to get closer to the bronze medal position they took last year at the Europeans – so it was all to play for on the classic team race.

The classic team course was shorter than the main course at just over 10 minutes, and the GB womens team stormed to victory to take the first world title GB WWR has won since 1975. The C2 team got agonisingly close to the medal, coming back from 5 seconds down at halfway to miss out by 0.8 of a second.

Sprint Individuals



So to the final day, sprint individuals. Jonnie Schofield was hoping to take his first world championships medal – but the lack of time on the WW was a concern. GB felt confident that even on the easier course they could excel.

The women did not disappoint, Jessica Oughton took the gold, Hannah Brown took the silver and Sandra Hyslop followed it up with a great 8th place in her less favoured event.



Jonnie Schofield found the standard of the mens event tough, and ultimately just missed out on a medal in 4th place. Ben Oakley put the mistake in his classic individual run behind him to take 9th place, a great result.

So champagne flowed at the final medal ceremony, and team GB got to sing the national anthem again. It was the best ever world championships for GB, and it was the result of many years of genuine team work from the paddlers and support staff – the whole standard of the team moved forward together. It was a championship of many 1sts to be proud of:

1st ever individual world champion
1st time since 1975 we have won a world title
1st time since 1975 that we have had 2 medals in a single class
1st time since 1989 that we have won 2 (or more) individual medals
1st time since 1981 that we have had 2 mens kayaks in the top 10
1st time since 1995 that we have closely contested a C2 medal (so close!)

The team now moves on to the World Cups. The World Championships move to Augsburg next year for the sprint worlds and then to La Plagne (Isere river) for the Sprint and Classic worlds the following year.

Full results can be found on the WWR website:
http://www.wildwater.org.uk/index.php/2010-Internationals/Sort-World-Championships.html

Words by Neil Stamps.

(Posted on the 30th Jun 2010 by timb)

• European Canoe Slalom Champs
  (17th Aug 2010)
• Upper Lech Gorges
  (12th Aug 2010)
• World Raft Champs Medals
  (11th Aug 2010)
• Pete completes the Three Peaks
  (8th Aug 2010)
• Tunuyan River Expedition 2010
  (3rd Aug 2010)
• Further Victories for Viking
  (3rd Aug 2010)
• Rosanna Gorge - The Local Run!
  (31st Jul 2010)
• Pete Astles - Three Peaks Challenge
  (28th Jul 2010)