Day one of the Sprint World Championships got underway today in Poznan, Poland. With the conditions far from perfect with a strong tail wind, creating waves on the water the GB Team started their medal campaign with the 1000m heats.
With all the British boats qualifying into the semi-finals in difficult conditions the team were feeling confident for the afternoon’s semi finals. The WK1 1000m semi-final was to kick the afternoon session off with Great Britain’s European Champion Rachel Cawthorn (21 years old). The wind picked up as Rachel dug hard to finish her semi-final in 2nd place qualifying through to Saturdays finals.
Rachel Cawthorn comments:
“I was pleased with my performance although there is still more I can do. It was so rough at the end making it really tricky as there were four boats pretty close together for only three spots in the final. It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow with heats for the WK1 & WK4 500m, hopefully the conditions will cheer up for tomorrow making the racing a bit easier”
Jenna Hawkey and Angela Hannah who only started paddling in 2007 were next up in the WK2 semi-final and battled hard to finish 3rd claiming their spot in Saturday’s final.
Competing in his first World Championships since becoming Olympic Champion in Beijing, Dr Tim Brabants began his Championships in fine style finishing 2nd and qualifying through to Saturdays final with the second fastest times of the day.
Tim Brabants comments:
“The conditions were very difficult out there today, but it was a good days racing and just where I wanted to be.”
In the C2 James Train and Matt Lawrence fought hard but making a top two spot, to qualify them to the final proved too much, the pair finished in 7th.
In extremely tough condition the young crew of Jon Boyton (22 years old) and Ed Rutherford (20 years old) showed their future potential in their first World Championships together, paddling hard to finish in 3rd place narrowly missing out on a final place.
The MK4 of Farrell, Wycherley, Hastings and Daniels were challenging hard for a finals spot right to the end, finishing in 3rd place and missing out on the final by only 0.2 sec.
Brendan Purcell comments:
“There were good performances from all the athletes in very difficult conditions, particularly in the last 200m. Every boat was competitive and were challenging for spots in the final. The highlight were seeing Tim back in the Final for the first time since Beijing, and the WK1 & WK2 being really strong and doing a good job securing their places in the final. In the Men’s, both the crew boats MK4 and MK2 narrowly missed out of a final showing their future potential. We are now looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings in the Women’s Olympic 500m events.”
With three finals in the bag for the British team, the racing continues tomorrow morning with the with the 500m heats, where Tim Brabants and Rachel Cawthorn will be racing again for places in the finals.
More information, startlists and results can be found at the official event website -
http://www.kayak2010.com