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Double Gold at World Rafting Championships This year’s World Rafting Champs were held in Bosnia Herzegovina on the River Vrbas near the city of Banja Luka and Tara Canyon on the border with Montenegro. Stunning scenery and super friendly locals were a surprising and welcoming start to an incredible event. With 45,000 people attending the opening ceremony and a further 2 million watching it on live TV, the atmosphere was electric. Helicopters hovered over every event and hundreds turned up to watch for themselves. The main road to Sarajevo was closed for the sprint and slalom events, which took part in a gorgeous part of the river in very alpine scenery.
The time trial and head to head sprint were first comp up. The section was a 500m stretch with one main rapid formed by a wave train and big hole at the bottom. Both the Mens and Womens GB teams were on fire and raced 4 times over after our initial qualifying time trials. The line was fought hard the whole way against every team until we eventually took a Gold each! The crowd went crazy and we were splashed over every newspaper and TV the next day, even a surprise visit from the British Ambassador at the end of our finals.
Next up, endurance, and what an endurance it turned out to be. The run was set in the gorgeous turquoise blue waters of the Tara Canyon, a UNESCO world heritage site. Both teams started in good positions but this meant the rest of the heat were up for battle. Fatigue from the sprint racing and a 7 hour police escort convoy to Montenegro wasn’t a good start but we held out and secured 6th in ladies and 11th in mens.
The final event was saved for slalom, one of our strongest disciplines. The event was held at night in the floodlight gorge on the Vrbas which created an incredibly beautiful backdrop. The ladies first run was steady and clean, getting just one touch from the boat giving us 3rd place. The men’s first run was nail biting as a whole gate was missed. Best of two count so the girls upped their next run with a bit more speed. We cleaned the whole lot again but had a traumatic moment where a ‘50’ was heard being mentioned by a judge. Our protest was not upheld meaning we slipped into 5th as the Czech ladies’ protest pushed themselves into our bronze position! This put us in 6th position overall. Our crushing defeat was short lived as the boys secured themselves a 4th in slalom and an overall bronze medal in the World Champs!
This was one of the best and biggest World Champs we have ever been to. An unprecedented 32 men’s and 21 women’s teams attended. To bring home Gold medals in the World Championships is an amazing experience and one we hope to exceed at the R4 Worlds at Dutch Water Dreams next year and R6 Worlds in Costa Rica in 2011! Huge thanks to everyone at Peak UK for all their support and matching winner’s kit!
Words by Georgina Preston, photos © Gaz Wilson. (Posted on the 7th Jun 2009 by timb) |
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