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GB Slalom Team Selection 2011 Last weekend Lee Valley White Water course, the brand new 2012 Olympic canoe slalom venue played host to the three race GB Canoe Slalom Team selection series. The weather was almost identical for each of the 3 days of racing with bright sunshine and blue skies making the Lee Valley course look particularly stunning. Unfortunately for the slalom athletes the sunny weather was accompanied by strong gusting winds for the whole bank holiday weekend. This made for very challenging racing conditions and also left the spectators bright red with varying combinations of sun and wind burn.
GB Team Selection is the most important domestic race each year where athletes compete for the honour to represent GB at the World and European Championships. This year once again saw high drama and some truly excellent sporting performances. Peak UK were strongly represented in all the Olympic categories and had a successful series overall with 4 athletes making the team.
Greg Pitt started the Mens C1 series well scoring a 3rd place in the first race but unfortunately faltered in the next two races to finish 5th overall and hence miss the team is this class. To make up for this disappointment he and his partner Adam Burgess raced hard when it mattered in the last race to secure third spot on the C2 team.
As has become his usual style Huw Swetnam racing in Mens K1 had left it all to do in the third race of the series. With only a 4th and 5th place so far he needed to win the last race to be sure of retaining his place on the senior team. Despite being under incredible pressure he showed his calibre by winning both the semi-final and the final convincingly and hence claimed his spot on the team.
Young Joe Clarke was also racing in the Mens K1 class and showed some extreme pace over the series to finish a very promising 6th place. With improved consistency he'll undoubtedly be featuring in the senior team some time soon.
Peak's Women's K1 representatives were Fiona Pennie and Lizzie Neave, both previous individual World Championship medallists but due to the extremely high standard of the women's team in GB their places on the team were not to be taken for granted. Fiona Pennie showed startling pace throughout the series and would have won both of the first two races but time penalties for touching gates meant that she had to settle for 2nd and then 1st which still confirmed her place in the team. Lizzie Neave had a more exciting time, with 3rd place finishs in the first two races she needed to beat Louise Donnington in the final race to make the team. Both girls dealt with the pressure well laying down impressive runs, in the end Lizzie came out on top and made the team in style by winning the third race overall.
Paul Ramsdale and Gaz Wilson raced hard in the C2 category for which the courses and windy conditions were particularly tough. They had promising sections but struggled for full run consistency and in the end they missed the team finishing in 5th place.
Dan Goddard's Speedskin 2 topdeck looked stunning as he raced to third spot on the team.
GB SENIOR AND U23 TEAMS 2011 ANNOUNCEMENT
2011 Overall Selection Results
Words and Photos Tim Baillie. (Posted on the 5th May 2011 by timb) |
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