Ausburg, World Cup 3.....

Posted By: Peak UK Published: 11/07/2018
 

Peter Kauzer world cup

Photo Credit - Mike Dawson

 

World Cup 3, what an amazing experience for both Phoebe and I (Ellis). After a cancelled flight being rearranged for the following day and a drought in Augsburg causing repercussions in the week leading up to racing it was most certainly not ideal.



Our flight was cancelled causing us to lose a days worth of training. This meant it was my first time on the water with only two sessions until the race began, but it was Phoebes second time at Augsburg racing.

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Photo Credit - Whitewater The Canoe Centre

 

Adding to the situation at the course there was a drought. The committee made the decision to reduce the session times to only 45 minutes and cancel all sessions that were due on the Thursday, in the hope that the water levels would be fine for racing. The whole of team GB maximised this precious time on the water to the best of their ability, practicing classic moves and increasing their confidence leading into the weekend.

On Wednesday night the team gathered to support England in their first knockout game of the World Cup against Columbia, excluding the Scots who were very much supporting the other side. Sadly, for them England won their first penalty shoot-out ever at a World Cup.

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Photo Credit - Mike Dawson

 

Demos for the heats were on Thursday night. The local paddlers from Augsburg showed us how to do it on what seemed a tricky course with classic moves. It helped us both get an insight on how to perform each move.

Before we raced we were feeling nervous yet excited as we did not know what to expect with it being one of our first World Cups. The atmosphere was amazing, and we were taken aback by the number of supporters that showed up throughout the weekend.

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Photo Credit - Mike Dawson

 

Team GB put in a solid performance with 11/14 boats making it through to the semi- finals. Amber Maslen finished up 39th in K1W with a good run which left her missing out on the semis in what was a very competitive category. Phoebe Spicer finished up 38th in C1W missing the semi-finals on her second run due to too many touches! I finished 34th in C1W just missing out on the semi-finals and for my first Senior World Cup I was very pleased and proud of my performance managing to put down a solid second run.

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Photo Credit - Mike Dawson

 

Onto the Saturday... it was K1W and C1M finals day. Team GB had 6 boats racing. Out of the C1M Ryan Westley and Adam Burgess qualified for the finals with David Florence missing out in 15th. After them performing well Ryan finished up in 9th with Adam closely behind in 10th. Ryan and Adam were both able to improve their results finishing in 6th and 7th respectively. The K1W semis were very competitive resulting in Fiona Pennie placing 19th with a paddle back and Kimberly Woods unfortunately missing out finishes in 25th. Yet both women showed great determination and persistence paddling back for missed gates. Mallory Franklin put down a clean and fast run securing her place in the finals. The pressure was on and she most certainly delivered. Mallory finished a fantastic 2nd with it being her best result in her Kayak.

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Photo Credit - Mike Dawson

 

The final day of racing involved the C1W and K1M where team GB had 5 boats racing in the semis. Chris Bowers, along with Fiona, were unfortunately missing their coach due to illness but showed good ability to adapt to the situation resulting in them both having different coaches. Unluckily, Chris finished in 21st position. Despite delivering a fast run, Bradley Forbes-Cryans just missed out in 12th place in a very quick semi-final. Joe Clarke, who is sitting in first place in the World Cup standings, just qualified for his third World Cup final out of three in 10th position. In the final, Joe was able to produce a very competitive run for the others to chase, unfortunately he just missed out on a podium position in 4th against a strong field of competitors. Kimberly and Mallory easily qualified for the finals in 3rd and 1st respectively after laying down solid performances in the semi-finals. Kimberly finished in 4th position falling short of a podium position but showed good sportsmanship for cheering her teammate Mallory down. Mallory was able to secure 2nd, behind an exceptional run from Jess Fox, adding to her silver from Saturday. Overall, a very good weekend for team GB.

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Photo Credit - Mike Dawson

 

We both thoroughly enjoyed the experience and felt privileged to be apart of a thriving world class team giving us experience in the senior field as well as providing an international start line before the Junior and U23 World Championships. It was a memorable week with many positive highlights spent with a fun group of people.

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Photo Credit - Peak UK

International paddler round up

World cup number three moved over to the original whitewater course in the German town of Ausburg. Masses of international paddlers defended on the course ready to compete.

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Photo Credit - Mike Dawson

 

Peak UK team paddlers from across Europe were in amongst the action of the finals. First off for team Peak UK was Ben Savsek for Slovenia, he came down with a quick time, but three costly touches, placing him in 8th. The legend that is Michal Martikan came down with no big errors, just a few minor time losses, put himself in 5th place. It was from Slovenia’s Luka Bozic that a medal came. A good solid run placed him in 3rd, even with a two second penalty!

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Photo Credit - Mike Dawson

 

It wasn’t until the K1 men that our international team started to bring in the medals again. with an impressive 9 out of 10 paddlers in the final using the racer ST, it was sure to get a medal or two! it was Hannes Aigner that kicked off the medals as just the third person to come down he put the fastest run of the down down to take an early lead. That lead would hold for a few more paddlers, until Jiri Priskavec stormed down with a time over two seconds faster, but with having touched a gate Jiri’s lead was reduced to just 0.69 seconds. Currently it was a one two three for the Racer ST with Britains Joe Clarke sitting in third. But Jiri’s lead did not last for long. Next down was the well loved Peter Kauzer. At half way he was just over 2 seconds down on Jiri’s time, but a stunning performance on the bottom half of the course saw him take the lead by just 0.24 seconds.

peak uk world cup

Photo Credit - Mike Dawson

 

Brilliant work from all the International and British paddlers who will now be looking forward to the next work cup in a few weeks at Tacen, Slovenia.

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Photo Credit - Mike Dawson