142 competitors and 26 Nations were on the start of the 2011 Adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Champs! With a competitive field the race was off to a great start with qualifications on the Friday, this saw the field cut down to the top 46men and the women cut completely as they do not have any semi or finals race on the Wellebruke section- a real shame! The Womens racing was tight this year with a small field of 8 chickas from 8 different Nations! Going in
to the race I was pretty fired up and keen to give it heaps! My first run was a 132seconds and placed me in 2nd equal with Roz from Auz and Caro from France as were all on the same second, and this put Martina Wegman of the Netherlands with a dominant 2second lead! I needed to fix my line on the ‘Champions Killer’ drop as I hit the left eddy after it which lost me a lot of time. Unfortunately my second run I lost my edge at the bottom of the drop and lost some time so finished with the same time and was pushed into 4th position behind Martina Wegman, Caro Loir and Anne Hubner who pulled through a fast time in her 2nd run to beat my by less than a second. Big ups to Martina Wegman for laying down two solid runs and taking out the Chicks div for the 4th year in a row! She totally nailed it and had a well deserved win! I am super keen to come back next year and hopefully we can push for the Women to race finals on the top section! Martina, Roz and Caro and I(in 93rd) were all placed in the top 90 of the men after 1st runs, in order to go through to the top we would have needed to be in the top 48.
Mens Race=KIWI DOMINATION!!!
I have to say I was really really stoked to be there to watch Mike Dawson and Sam Sutton kill the competition on the Wellebrucke rapids! The Mens racing was very tight and the final was awesome to watch. With Fabian Dorfler, Michelle Ramazza, Issac Livingstone and superstar slalom racer Vavra the field was incredible and some very smooth performances were layed down. There was about 4dudes on 98seconds and this put Vavra in 4th, Paul Brockelman in 3rd and Mike Dawson with a 98.10 in 2nd, with Sam Sutton laying down an absolutely epic run of 95seconds! Hell yea! Super motivating and I was very happy for these guys!
To follow came the inaugural Sickline Party at the Mexican restaurant, it was a great celebration and good way to end the event. This was followed the next day by a swim in the lake, macdonalds and then to Munich to join in the Octoberfest celebrations!!!It was wild. In the morning I cruised to the train station and then journeyed for 8hours (by car its 4hours!) back to my European Base here in Prague! I have an assignment due tomorrow and then I fly home on Thursday! The plan is to be skiing with my beautiful family by Saturday afternoon!
Big Thanks to all the Super Amazingly Awesome European (and Worldwide) people that have helped me out this year here in Europa! You all totally rock and make my trip and travel here a breeze, dreamlike even at times! Cheeers, Dajkuim, Gracias, Dunke! Photo credit- Adidas Website and Martin Hammer: Sam Sutton, Mikey D, Boys on the podium and myself on the bottom drop:)
To see results checkout: Results here
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