K1W and C2 men Results day Five Brazil

K1 Women and C2 Men Semi-Finals Day Five 23 September 2007 Brazil

With 30 C2 crews in the start line today the former Olympic gold and world champion C2 crew of brothers Peter and Pavel Hoschorner SVK once again showed their world class standard by easily taking out the C2 title in 206.81 with one touch. This season has seen them unbeatable in World Cups and European Opens. French brothers Pierre and Christophe Luquet were second in the medal count down by 8 seconds in a time of 214.83 with Benetti and Masoero ITA taking out 3rd position. The NZL C2 crew Nicholas and Robinson never quite found their form and had forced errors down the course putting paid to any hopes of Olympic qualification in the C2class. The course showed its challenges to C2 crews driving through gates 7-9 and 14-16 proving how easy it was to be off line, incur a 50 second penalty and struggle to fully recover.

Forty K1 women lined up with NZL’s Tania Perrett second starter today. The K1W had its drama with top paddlers incurring 50 second penalties often on gate 5. Perrett started well on the top of the course but had a slow time when coupled with forced errors between gates 12-16 leaving her near the bottom of the field. She found it difficult to maintain her speed and accuracy on the technically demanding course. At this stage final K1W results haven’t been posted on the web

Canoe slalom with high audience profile is seen as the most technically and physically demanding of all the Olympic sports . With inconsistent water the athletes are always adjusting their performance as they paddle down the course.

To all the NZL athletes competing in Brazil at their own cost, training without a coach and maintaining top 30 positions in the world be proud of your efforts. You have done the hard yards and it was unfortunate it didn’t happen on the day that counted. Teams with full support, paid coaches, paid athletes and paid managers, physios and nutritionists did not out do your performances at times in these world championships.
Thanks to Alison Perrett for her support, Sue and Kay for their help with the Kiwis and Kidda for his time and effort away from his work to be with the seniors

Watch out the Kiwis will be back for the Oceania Olympic Qualification Championships in Sydney March 2007.