Rain, rain and more rain on the 2010 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championship Parade

09/09/2010

Athletes face a number of challenges at the 2010 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships from 8th – 12th September 2010 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. First up is the Big Drop, right at the start of the race, making the course fast from the outset. So, fast and furious, the course by its very nature is swirly and unpredictable making it very changeable. Add this to the unsavoury weather conditions, the water is even faster; another challenge for the athletes who may find it hard to predict the water.

Exciting first day
On the first day of SLOKA 2010, both athletes and organisers were put through their paces. The expected downpour has kept those behind the scenes on their toes, but thankfully the careful planning has kept the event running like clockwork.

Men's C2
Qualifying in first place was the British duo made up of Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott. They cleared the field with half a second to spare. The French team, Denis Gargaud Chanut and Fabien Lefevre completed just one run, safe in the knowledge that their time of 107.12 would put them in the top 30. Their one and only run was the second fastest of the day. China's Hu-Shu team are becoming a regular fixture on the Canoe Slalom startlist. Securing their place with the third fastest time of the day. Others appearing in the semi-finals on Saturday morning are Slovakia's Kucera-Batik and the Hochschorner brothers, Great Britain's Florence-Hounslow. One big surprise was the failure of Czech pair, Volf-Stepanek to get through to the next round.

Women's K1
On her second run, Maialen Chourraut (ESP) made the course look positively easy winning the best time with nearly a second to spare. Following behind was Czech Republic's Stepanka Hilgertova and China's Yingying Zou. Team GB fared well with all three athletes from the Women's team qualifying. Louise Donnington qualified with the 5th fastest time, Lizzie Neave with the 15th fastest and Fiona Pennie with the 17th fastest time. Jana Dukatova, ranked first coming into the competition, is perhaps saving her best for last, qualifying with the 7th fastest time with her team mate, Dana Benusova with the 9th fastest time. The two Austrians, Corinna Kuhnle and Violetta Oblinger-Peters also made it. One Youth Olympian who made it through is Australia's Jessica Fox.

Men's C1
With the fastest time of the afternoon, Germany's Sideris Tasiadis will lead the 30 men going into the semis on Sunday. David Florence (GBR) and Takuya Haneda (JPN) follow with the second and third place respectively. In 4th in 5th place were the two Frenchmen. Reigning World Champion, Tony Estanguet finished with a time of 98.89 in his one and only run. Denis Gargaud Chanut's fastest run was a time of 100.36. Home boys, Anze Bercic and Benjamin Savsek came in together, just one second between them in 9th and 10th times respectively. Michal Martikan, who also just completed one run, qualifies with 11th fastest time followed by his fellow Slovakian, Alexander Slafkovsky.

Women's C1
Both Jessica Fox (AUS) and Jana Dukatova (SVK) were clearly saving their energy today as they raced just one run. Both of them ended up at the top of the board, Jess was fastest with a time of 123.52, Jana second with her time of 131.85. Both Nanqin Chen and Qianqian Teng (CHN) qualified in 6th and 13th place respectively. Qualifying in third place is France's Caroline Loir followed by Australia's Rosalyn Lawrence (last year's Women's C1 silver medallist) and Germany's Michaela Grimm.

Source: canoeicf.com & sloka.si

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