Rafting

Day 4 - A full day of racing

Today was a busy day on the course at the Teva World Rafting Champs (WRC) and Teva Youth World Rafting Champs. The Youth event had its last event the downriver while the WRC had their first 2 events, the sprint and head to head (H2H).

The youth downriver went very well and was a grueling event. It’s hard to raft for a few minutes, paddle flat water for a few more minutes and then run uphill to the top of the course to do it 3 more times. The youth teams did a great job and showed great athletic prowess and will be an even greater part of rafting in the future.

In the youth men’s division the Germans and Russians were out front early and battled between themselves for 1st and 2nd with the Germans crossing the line first. The battle for third and fourth was intense as well with the Netherlands and Czech republic going hard at each other and this included a couple of lead changes. In the end the Netherlands held their ground, ran well and came in third.

For the women the Netherlands bid their time and waited for Germany and Russia to battle it out and then came on strong and passed them both. From then on they held the lead and won the race. Germany took second and Russia Third
The 1st Youth World Rafting Championships has come to an end. The complete results are available on the website (www.wrc2010.nl). The top teams in the men were Russia (1), Germany (2) and Netherlands (3). The women’s overall winners were Netherlands (1), Germany (2) and Russia (3).

The WRC Sprint saw Russia in the top spot followed by Japan, Czech Republic, Brazil and in 5th and a great showing Indonesia. The women’s saw Great Britain stomp the rest of the field with a time over 2 seconds faster than the Netherlands in 2nd place. USA took 3rd followed by Slovakia and then Italy.

The H2H battle lines were drawn and the fun began. The first round had no real upsets although it was close when Bulgaria tried to take the USA. Round 2 of the eliminations saw all the expected teams move to the next round of 8 except New Zealand who were penalized.

In the Round of 8 Brazil beat Great Britain, Japan beat the USA, Slovakia beat Hungary (they flipped on the course) and Russia Beat Australia. In the round of 4 Japan Beat Brazil and Slovakia beat Russia. The final was a great race with Japan having lane advantage. However the Slovakian team showed there true skill and teamwork and managed to pass Japan and take first place. The Slovakian team has been one of the top teams for many years and it’s good to see them upset the favored teams and take the gold in the sprint. Brazil came 3rd with Russia 4th.

The women’s H2H was just as exiting and in the round of 16 the Czech Republic upset the rankings by beating the USA. In the round of 8 the Slovakian team beat New Zealand, Japan beat Netherlands, Russia beat the Czech Republic and Great Britain beat Hungary. In the semi finals Slovakia beat Japan and Russia beat Great Britain. This set up a great final and it was close to the end but the Slovakian team took the win. Great Britain took 3rd and Japan 4th.

It was a long day and a lot of racing. Many people worked hard to make it happen. The crew from the Dutch Rafting Federation, all the judges, safety crew, and volunteers from the Whitewater School made it happen. Thank you to all of you for your hard work and dedication to make this happen.