K1men and C1 Men Teams Day Three Brazil

The crowds dispersing after the final results were posted on the leader board. A wonderfully supportive atmosphere was felt as all spectators and competitors acknowledged by spontaneous clapping the sheer achievement of the winning teams

World’s underway in Foz do Iguassu -
Day 3 report from Brazil
Whitewater Slalom NZ, Friday, 21 September 2007 Brazil date
Adapted from Australian Canoeing

Germany dominate day three of the world championships in Brazil, New Zealand’s Men's K1 team finish 11th and Men’s C1 13th.
Germany dominated the team event finals on day three of the world championships winning gold in the men’s and women’s kayak events and silver in the men’s C1 team. France in C1 and the Czech Republic in C2 were the other winners.
New Zealand’s C1 team, James Dawson, Mark Yungnickel and Bryden Nicholas were in 13th position after first runs with two 50 second penalties. A shambles occurred during their second run when Hungry failed to pull over to the side of the river, team NZ caught them and couldn't’t avoid ramming one of their boats in a gate. A re-run was awarded unfortunately with only ten minutes to line up on the start Nicholas struggled on the course incurring two 50 second penalties, Dawson and Yungnickel both incurred touches leaving them well out of contention behind Canada and ahead of Japan in thirteenth position overall.
The French were the convincing winners ahead of Germany and the Czech Republic, holding on to a first run lead ahead. Slovakia, in second after the first runs and a potential threat to the French, were awarded a fifty second penalty on gate six and dropped out of contention.
New Zealand’s men’s kayak team posted competitive raw times on both their runs. However, Mike Dawson, Johann Roozenburg and Aaron Osborne were hindered by penalties and finished just out of a top ten position in eleventh behind the Australians and ahead of Spain, Japan, USA and Italy to name a few. Roozenburg commented on his performance "I had a faster time in teams than in my individual race"
For a moment, France looked liked they had snatched gold from first run leaders, Germany, when the scoreboard showed the Germans in second place with 6 seconds of penalties on their second run. However, an inquiry by the race officials corrected the result and confirmed Erik Pfannmoeller, Fabien Doerfler and Alexander Grimm as the men’s kayak world champions. The Czech Republic was third.
Slovakia started the day as one of the favourites for multiple team medals but had to settle for only one bronze in the C2 event behind the winners, the Czech Republic and France.
As expected the German team of Jennifer Bongardt, Jasmin Shornberg and Mandy Planert took gold in the women’s team with a total of 238.76, 1.73 seconds ahead of the Czech Republic and a relieved British team who survived a first run protest to place third.
The score board told the story with high penalty counts for the majority of teams, including the New Zealanders. The technical course, swirling upstreams and closely set gates creating the challenges for the athletes and the judges, who, at times, struggled to keep the score.
At the end of day three of competition the course was modified for the semi finals and finals on Saturday and Sunday.
The course designers, Eric Giddens of the USA and ICF technical commission chairman, Jean Michel Prono, have stepped up the level of difficulty creating even tighter moves on the 23 gate course.
Aaron Osborne will be the first New Zealander on the course followed by Mike Dawson in the K1 semi final event.
The men’s C2 and women’s K1 semi finals and finals take place on Sunday.


The judges preparing their judging sheets approximately 2-3hours each day