Sportzhub.com

Italian Daniel Molmenti has won the 2010 Oceania Championships. Molmenti charged 2 seconds ahead of Czech Republics Vavrinec Hradilek in a spectacular afternoons racing.  Triple Olympic Champions Hochschorner brothers were no match for their fellow countrymen Skantar and Skantar who charged to victory under the challenging 2000 Olympic course. Yesterday in the ladies K1 Austrian Corinna Kuhnle paddled clear ahead of Czech Republics Katerina Kudejova with Australian Sarah Grant coming home with bronze. France’s Edern Le Ruvet provided the upset of the competition winning ahead of a large international field in the C1 Mens. Young gun Jessica Fox won the C1 ladies.

The Kiwis had another hard weekend at the river, with none qualifying for the top ten finals.

Luuka Jones finished best of the kiwi girls in 21st and Louise Jull 23rd. Shaun Travers finished up 25th and Shaun Higgins rounded up the semi final in 30th. With Byden Nicholas partner unable to paddle due to illness he combined with Shaun Higgins to finish a very respectable 13th and narrowly miss out on the finals. Ben Gibb and Bradyn Church finishing a disappointing 16th. The developing class of Ladies C1 Louise Jull showed some promise finishing 9th and Ella Nicholas our Cook Island New Zealander was 7th. Aaron Osborne had an early mistake and picked up penalties, he pushed too hard for that top 10 finish and ended up a disappointing 35th.

The Junior team will now return back to New Zealand to prepare for their Junior World Championships. They will also be trying to get ahead at school so they can go on their long Junior Worlds campaign. Aaron Osborne and Mike Dawson will stay on in Australia for another 5 weeks to finish their aerobic training block in preparation for the World Championships later this year in Slovenia.

Photo credit: Ian Mercer

A large international field with 194 competitors from 19 countries raised the excitement around the course and only the best will make it through to the finals.

This is one of the closest races to the world championships with most top internationals, world and Olympic champions racing. Most of the internationals have come from all around the world in search of a warm training venue and the 2000 Olympic course provides that!

The conveyor belt ride from the bottom of the course to the top allows for excellent aerobic training with minimal rest and maximal time on the white water.

New Zealand sent a large team with both senior and junior teams attending with the juniors racing for international race experience and the senior team looking for top 10 results.

The kiwis arrived here in drips throughout the week and had been preparing well for the race. Unfortunately the hard luck story went to Andrew Robinson who was unable to race as he is in hospital with an illness. 6 out of the 15 kiwis have qualified for the semi finals. Louise Jull and Luuka Jones finished up best of the kiwi ladies and will race with Shaun Travers tomorrow in the semi finals.

The K1 mens had a disappointing day with Aaron Osborne the sole kiwi kayak qualifying for the semi finals. Aaron and the C2 crews will have to wait till Sunday to have their shot at qualifying for the top 10.
Top Juniors Callum Gibb and Jane Nicholas just missed out on qualifying for the semi finals and will now start to prepare their Junior Worlds later this year.
K1 Mens Top 40 qualify for semi finals
Aaron Osborne 34th
Callum Gibb 49th
Mike Dawson 50th
Malcom Gibson 64th
Carl Whitehead 69th out of 86

C2 Mens top 20 qualify for semi finals
Ben Gibb/Bradyn Church 16th
Bryden Nicholas/Shaun Higgens 17th out of 20

K1 Ladies Top 30 qualify for semi finals
Louise Jull 21st
Luuka Jones 26th
Jane Nicholas 32nd
Nikki Whitehead 33rd
Ella Nicholas 34th
Kelly Travers 43rd out of 46

C1 Mens Top 30 qualify for semi finals
Shaun Travers 26th
Haven Bellemy 32nd out of 38

Will Forsythe of Australia continued his sizzling form last weeks selection races to take the honours in the Mens K1 event.

Forsythe laid down the gauntlet in his first run with a clean 88.77, which proved to be the best result of the day. Raphael Reveche of France 0.8 seconds behind with Czech, Vavrinec Hradilek in 3^rd. Top New Zealander Mike Dawson in 5^th just 2.09 seconds from Forsythe.

The C1Mens event was a trifecta for France with Nicolas Peschier 95.14 followed by Edern Le Ruyet 95.95 and in third Pierre Tillard. Top of the kiwis was Shaun Travers in 4th The women’s K1 saw the Lawrence sisters of Australia take the top two positions, with NZ junior Jane Nicholas in third. (Kate Lawrence 102.99, Ros Lawrence 108.05 and Nicholas 108.36).

In the canoe class, C2 pair Ben Gibb and Bradyn Church from NZ continued their rise up the ranks to take the honours ahead of Bryden Nicholas and Andrew Robinson.As expected the C1 women’s event was won by world no 1, Rosalyn Lawrence, with a good performance by kiwi Louise Jull in second and Jane Nicholas 3^rd.

The event doubled as the final selection for the NZ Senior, Under 23 and Junior teams and many of the places went to the wire in the last race. Teams will be confirmed within the next couple of days but there were many notable performances especially from members of the 2009 junior team who are biting at the heels of the seniors. The Senior Team will compete at the World Championships held later this year in Slovenia.  The Junior team will compete at the Junior World Championships held in France in July.

Athletes are ranked from their best 3 races and the top 3 from each class will be included in the 2010 NZ Canoe Slalom Team. The seniors will race later this year at the World Cups (Czech Republic, Spain, Germany) and the World Championships (Slovenia) and the Juniors will get to race the Junior World Championships held in France.

A large New Zealand field attended the race with top internationals coming from Australia, Ireland, Canada and Slovenia. The top Internationals didn’t disappoint with top Australian Will Forsythe and previous world cup champion Kate Lawrence winning the K1 categories on both days. (Will F is out here on a training trip with me, where we have been able to share ideas and get some solid training volume in, in  preparation for later this year at the world cups. Its awesome to have Will and the other internationals coming out to New Zealand to push us and they lift everyone at the competition. I had 2 pretty solid runs over both days with a few places where Will took time out of me.  However Im happy with my runs considering Im not race fit as my training is focused around races later this year).

Aaron Osborne and Luuka Jones lead out the New Zealand K1 field with Mike Dawson top of C1 category. The C2 of Ben Gibb and Bryden Church produced 2 quality runs edging ahead of rivals Andrew Robinson and Bryden Nicholas by 2 seconds. Callum Gibb  and Jane Nicholas continued their top form the Australian Nationals winning the junior categories on both days, with Haven Bellamy top junior C1. Results can be found at slalomnz.org.nz

While this is only the halfway point in the New Zealand Team Trials its starting to heat up with some paddlers really putting on the pressure for those all important spots on the team. Athletes will get one last chance to prove they are worthy at the NZ Open held this weekend in Shannon (Palmerston North).

Their coach, Aaron Osborne gives us a run down on how the NZ Junior Development Team got on: “We had a day lay over before heading out to the river. Everyone made the most of it spending up large and others watched the Boxing Day test match in Federation Square. Another early start had us drive 2hrs northwest through Yarra Valley to Lake Eildon. It’s a very small town with only the essentials and two sight seeing locations (Lake Eildon and Snobbs Creek Waterfall). Apparently houseboats are the ‘in’ thing as the lake was scattered with them! The blazing heat was a shock to most of us but everyone settled into team life really well. Movies, cards, swimming and cook offs were at the top of the list for things to do in between trainings. Coming up with ways to avoid the heat was also a favourite pastime. Ice, freezing drink bottles, stealing the one fan for 24 people, but my personal favourite was standing in the fridge. The New Years Eve show was awesome, however it came as a storm! We were lucky not to be camping as the 40 degree heat turned to 48mm of rain in 1hour!  Crazy weather!

Competing with over 190 athletes from all states in Australia the kiwis outclassed many of their competitors in the tour comprising Australian Secondary Schools Championships, races three and four of the Southern Cup and then the Australian National Championships.

New Zealand paddlers dominated all age groups in the schools competition for K1 men with young guns Andre Sperling winning the U14 K1, with Finn Butcher 2nd in U14 K1M but 1st in U14C1.

Cole O’Connor Stratton 2^nd U15 years, Callum Gibb took the U16 title and was runner up in C1 while Haven Bellamy won both classes in the U17 age group. Bellamy repeated his silver medal performance at the national event to finish second in the junior category. Shaun Travers gained silver in the schools U18 C1, and then paddled to victory in the next event taking the Southern Cup in U23C1, while his sister Kelly took the women’s U16 K1 Southern Cup win.

Jessica Bailey from Wanaka showed her potential to win the schools U14 K1W event and combined with Jane Nicholas and Carey Lintott to take silver in the U18 team events.  Carey had previously placed 3^rd in the U17 K1W event at the schools. There was intense rivalry in the junior boys teams events with the young guns of Sperling, Butcher and O’Connor Stratton pipping the more senior team of Gibb, Brown and Gibson in both teams events.

Also taking on the Aussies were the two top New Zealand C2 crews, both making the podium in all their races. Following their success in Europe in 2009, and an Australian title as a target for the end of their last year of school, Ben Gibb & Bradyn Church arrived earlier in the week to win the Australian Schools title. Bryden Nicholas and Andrew Robinson (fellow junior squad coach) took out the Southern Cup Series.

Gibb and Church then produced some great paddling to win the Under 23 C2 class at nationals ahead of Nicholas & Robinson in second.

The Australian, Guinea brothers were first seniors in the event with the kiwis finishing second and third overall in the Australian National Open champs.

Aaron Osborne another of the junior coaches and senior men’s paddler won the Southern Cup Open Mens title and took silver in the Open division at the Australian Nationals.

The heat intensified throughout the tour and so the water started to rise to the normal water level. It was a welcome change from the flat conditions caused by the New Years Eve storms (high temperature means farmers need higher water levels for irrigation).  More Australians arrived for the Australian Open Nationals. Again New Zealand picked up a bunch of medals wining most team events we entered. Stand out performances from Callum Gibb beating all the Aussie juniors (under 18) to the podium in number one spot. This followed his great performances in the Australian Secondary Schools Championships the week before where he won the U16 K1 title and was second in C1. Team mate Jane Nicholas also improved her position from the schools event moving from 2^nd in U17 K1W and C1 to produce her best paddling in the Australian nationals to take the U18 K1 women’s win the day after winning the overall under 23 category in the Southern Cup.

Team management also entered in the Open Mens Teams race and even picked up a cheeky 3^rd. Everyone in the team raced extremely well at all three events and the team were great ambassadors for Canoe Slalom New Zealand! With a medal haul close to 80 medals overall in both individual and teams events this must make this one of the most successful tours ever for New Zealand’s young canoe slalom paddlers. New Zealand Canoe Slalom is in good shape for the future! With too many podium finishes, to list, over the three competitions, full results can be found at www.canoe.org.au.

The tour officially ended on the 10^th Jaunary, however most of the team decided to have a training camp at the 2000 Olympic course in Penrith, Sydney where they will meet up with other NZ senior team paddlers. All NZ paddlers will be returning home late January where they will race in the New Zealand Canoe Slalom team trials held in Kawerau 23-24^th January and the NZ Open in Shannon (Palmerston North) on the 30-31^st January. Teams selected at these races will race the Oceania Championships (Sydney 19-21^st February) and World Championships and World Cups later this year.

For more information about canoe slalom go towww.slalomnz.org.nz or follow www.aaronosborne.co.nz

Photos Credit: Ian Mercer

Following on from the World Cups Series, the New Zealand Junior Team departed Europe and most of the seniors have gone to various locations in Europe to train.  Mike Dawson and Aaron Osborne chose Prague as their venue for 3 Weeks of solid training, during which, they were invited to compete at the Wave Festival 2009, in Ceske Budujovice. They spent their time early in the week coaching young juniors from France, Czech Republic, Belgium and Germany.

Coaching was rather interesting with the Kiwis only knowing the basics of each language, therefore hand signals proved to be the best way of communication.

“Well, we were in the Wave Festival for the first two days, helping out as coaches for the young juniors. We had a wicked time chilling out, coaching and paddling on a new course.”

There was a short trip in between training to pick up Brent Bastin (NZ C1 paddler) from Vienna, then straight back for the race. Large numbers at this race meant the organisers let the top 40 go through to the semi finals. All the team qualified easily. “In usual Wave style they set a rather tight and challenging course for both days of racing. Saturday was pretty easy with the top 40 going through”.

In the final, both paddlers pushed too hard at the top of the course losing valuable time and picking up a 2 second penalty.  “Sunday only top 10 went to finals so semis were the critical part. I had a pretty solid run nothing fancy, and was down in 8th place. It was a good final, I had a pretty good bottom section but had a shocker gate 1, 2, 3 and hit gate 2. Not a good start. But was pleased with my run to get back online and finish it. I finished 7th, Mike 6th,” said Aaron Osborne.

For video of race – click here

And now, another week of intensive training in Prague before the whole senior team reunite in Bratislava for the Slovak Open next weekend, then on to Slovenia for the Pre Worlds.

Aaron had a “wicked” week in Augsburg, home of the bratwurst, beer and Alexander Grim (2008 Olympic Champion). “Funnily enough the cold and the wet brought out some excellent racing and huge crowds. The Germans love their sports people.”

The 1972 Olympic course was “beautiful” and “unique”, as described by Aaron, “The course was rather unique looking, and even more so to paddle on.

It was ‘tunnel like’ with very inconsistent water levels. It was thought that this inconsistent water may separate the men, however with only 1 run counting, racing was very tight against top paddlers, in both the mens and the womens division.”

“The New Zealand Juniors were amongst those competing and are definitely showing improvements after their 3 different coaches this Summer. It was their final race in the European balmy weather and they have now gone home with some great achievements and stories under their belts.”

Friday was qualification day in the World Cup ranking. Aaron Osborne showed good speed through the top of the course but had trouble around gate 14, loosing valuable time and picking up a 2 second penalty, finishing in 48^th.  Mike Dawson also had a tough finishing in 39^th out of 75.  In the second runs, both the boys pushed too hard and picked up 50 second penalties.
The girls both collected multiple 50s. Louise Jull finished 44^th and Luuka Jones 47^th out of 4

The juniors raced to their potential with Cullum Gibb just finishing outside the top 50, and Jane Nicholas finishing top Kiwi Girl in 42^nd. The C2 crew finished in 25^th out of 27.

Saturday saw semi-finals for the mens K1. Something the Kiwi men unfortunately didn’t get to participate in after their disappointing qualifications. However, Saturday was also the Boat-a-cross race or Boater X.

A race between 4 creek boats paddling at the same time down the course, avoiding inflatable obstacles, rocks, walls and of course other paddlers. A fun event with lots of prizes, ended with an array of kayaking pressies to take away.  Only two Kiwis entered with Louise Jull finishing in 4th from 8 and Mike Dawson finishing outside of the top 4 from 16 competitors.

With all the World Cups completed, the Canoe Slalom World Cup Series Rankings were posted. The new format provided interesting results. The Kiwis benefiting from having a continental race count towards their rankings, with the European Championships not qualifying for points.In the Mens K1, out of 93 paddlers:

Mike Dawson 21^st

Aaron Osborne 22^nd

Johan Roozenburg 25^th

Callum Gibb 65^th

Female K1, out of 65 paddlers:

Luuka Jones 14^th.

Jane Nicholas 22^nd

The New Zealand team showed a lot of potential with very fast split times sections, but fell short when it came putting the run together on the day. The team is still very young and most canoe slalom athletes make their first final around the age of 25.

Aaron spoke with Campbell Walsh (1^st World Cup Bratislava) about his career. He celebrated his 50^th start in a major event (World Championships or World Cups, 3 per year) and had completed over 20 major races before making any final. From there on he has been a dominant athlete in canoe slalom. What flicked the switch from average to world champion? No one knows, but the Kiwi team will continue to try make that elusive World Cup Medal.

Aaron Osborne and Mike Dawson are now in Prague for some serious training.

http://www.youtube.com/v/I0ILYjUgGG8&hl=en&fs=1&amp

Then it was Mike Dawson next up paddling a super efficient first run, putting him in the top 10. Aaron Osborne showed form with no gate touches; a clean time putting him in 15th position after first runs.

Second runs for the Kiwi’s however proved how tough the new rules are, letting semi-finals for the entire team slip so easily from their hands. There were just milli-seconds separating the men’s field. By the end there was only 3 seconds from 3rd to 40th position in mens; a very competitive field!

The end results saw Luuka Jones in 30th, Louise Jull 32nd, Mike Dawson 22nd and Aaron Osborne 28th. Aaron and Mike were disappointed with their results but also happy at the same time as many top names fell behind them.

Aaron was also happy with his result with only paddling on the river 2 times before racing with Mike and Louise having trained for 5 weeks prior to the season. The team was also optimistic considering they are pretty much the only team without a coach, video support and team officials.

It seems the Kiwi’s are improving as the races come and go, providing motivation and determination for training in the weeks ahead.

With no Kiwis are racing tomorrow the team will head towards Germany for World Cup #3. The location for this race is the Olympic venue from 1972. Racing is going to be extremely hard for the Kiwis as most of the Europeans have raced at this venue for the past 20 years. With the improvements so far and the tight racing anything is possible in this sport!

Check out some of the video action – Click here

NZ number 1 Aaron Osborne and Mike Dawson, left France straight after Luuka finished her run on Sunday, to drive across Europe to the next World Cup.  Our slalom kayakers discovered too much water when they arrived in Bratislava, and that the possibility that the regatta could be canceled!

There had been significant rainfall in Western Europe, particularly in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both countries flow into the river Danube which is where the artificial slalom course is.

This has caused the course to be closed for all of this week. The Kiwi kayaksers were planning to go to Prague or Munich to train, but both of these courses were flooding also! After some thought by the organising committee, they have confirmed the race will be on.  Aaron said at the time, “It will be interesting to see what will happen. The course normally has a challenging 4m drop at the end right where your arms are screaming with lactate.  At the moment there is no drop, just flat water. We still haven’t been on the course however, and we will get two practice sessions, one Thursday and one Friday”.

There are only a few kiwis lining up for the start of World Cup 2, with the Junior Team training the week in France.

Mike Dawson and Louise Jull are looking forward to racing here having spent about 6 weeks at the location earlier in the European summer.  Luuka and Aaron are looking forward to getting back on the whitewater as they suffer some withdrawals from the white water.

Latest is that the rivers have returned to normal and the regatta is now..

Kiwi’s lining up for qualification were Olympian Luuka Jones, NZ number 1 Aaron Osborne and Mike Dawson.  “It was a awesome day here, the sun was baking and like normal I turn red rather than brown. Fluid intake was high, like the amount of spectators. They have really done an awesome job at organising such a wicked event! There were 2 massive TV screens, and a handful of smaller screens scattered through the event. Good food, good athletes, good river = good times.” Reported Osborne.

In the mens slalom the Kiwi’s didn’t perform to their best as Osborne explains. “After a good week’s build up and paddling really well both Mike Dawson and I missed the semi finals cut off. Mike 46th, me a very disappointing 53rd.” commented Osborne “I was rather nervous in my first run and had a shocker breaking out above upstream 7 and dropping low in a few eddys. The rest of the run was ok but small errors make big mistakes here. My second run was just kaka.”

The New Zealand juniors didn’t fair that well either “Louise Jull and a handful of the Juniors also had a bad day finishing outside the cut.”In the women’s it was all good news with Jones powering through the course to make the next round.  “Luuka Jones had a good day qualifying for the semis and will get to race tomorrow.” Commented Osborne after watching her race.  After her run Jones said “I can’t believe it, this has never happened to me.”

The increased level of competition and a change to the rule book has lifted the bar for the Kiwi paddlers as Osborne explains “With 10secs between 1st and 50th and only 3secs separating the top 20, the new rule changes have definitely made it hard to make the cut (combined runs to best run counts). They have also gone from top 40 to top 20 making the mens rather competitive.”

“They have set a harder and more technical course for the finals. I wish they would set courses like these for heats too as it might spread the field.”

After an eventful trip via Bangkok and Paris featuring lightning storms, lost paddles and bags, Aaron arrived in La Seu D’Urgell, Spain for the world training camp.  This site is home to the 2009 Canoe Slalom World Championships to be held in September.

A canoe slalom athlete and the number 1 New Zealand, and number 1U23  Australian champ, Aaron is part of a strong Kiwi team of seniors and a select group of juniors who will be competing in this weekend’s Canoe Slalom World Cup.

The course at Pau is very challenging with a large amount of gradient which produces many holes, waves and very surgy eddy’s, much like Beijing’s slalom course. Aaron says “The course is definitely a favourite for all New Zealand paddlers, as we thrive in the larger white water events and its extra fun!”

As a strong advocate for the proposed White Water Stadium project in Manukau, Aaron was saddened to hear Manukau City Council has pulled the plug on their $40 million contribution towards the total project cost of $60 million. He believes it would be a great asset to New Zealand.

The Olympic quality stadium would host World Cup Kayaking events, as well as having an additional learner’s course for school programs which would get our kids active! This Olympic Stadium White Water action would attract thousands of tourists, and every international slalom kayaker Aaron has talked to said they would definitely come to Auckland for every summer to train.

To follow Aaron’s progress and view photos and video you can visit his Blogg at   http://www.aaronosborne.co.nz/