Kimberley Woods
This year’s 2018 Junior and U23 World Championships took place in the heart of Italy amongst the foothills of the Alps in the town of Ivrea.
The Dora Baltea River snakes through the centre of town fuelled by the winter’s snow melt and is then held back by the famous dam supposedly designed by Leonardo da Vinci by which the legendary white water course is created. This was the home of the championships. The GB team landed in Italy en masse and had athletes racing at World Cup 3 in Augsburg joining us when we landed, to make up the complete worlds squad for an 8 day training camp prior to the racing. This proved very productive and definitely gave all of the athletes confidence leading into the racing to come. The formal championships began on the 17th of July for the 6 day competition where by the end of it there would be junior and U23 athletes from across the world crowned the 2018 world champions. We were all excited and ready to embrace the challenge of racing at what was going to be a lot of our first experiences at international races.
Racing was possibly hindered by the cancellation of the world’s training camp a few weeks before we flew out for the lead in camp and then the worlds, but we all refocused well and put the setback behind us to secure many solid performances when it came to the racing.
The competition began with the team events where all athletes looked very smart in the team GB Racer STs.
Bradley Forbes Cryans
The team was very proud of the U23 C1 M who took bronze and then the Junior C1 W taking silver both with very solid performance. The Junior K1M missed out by a narrow margin finishing in 5th whilst the junior K1 W and U23 W finished in 4th. The racing then commenced with the heats over the next few days where the majority of the teams athletes progressed safely into the semi-finals. Friday was a rest day due to it being solely Boater X and mixed C2 which gave a good opportunity for us to get away from racing and clear our heads for the competition to come as well as have a chance to explore the beauty of Italy. The team headed to a nearby lake where we all chilled out and a team quiz took place to lighten the mood in camp.
Next came the semi-finals which meant that the nerves were enhanced and the aspirational result of making a worlds final was within peoples reach. They just had to perform to their ability. No easy task against the world’s best. Phoebe Spicer qualified into the final in K1 W junior in 4th as well as Ben Haylett in the C1 M in 8th place along with many others.
By the time all the competition had played out and the finals had ran their cause, Kimberly Woods came out with a Bronze in K1 and a Silver in C1 and Bradley Forbes-Cryans took silver in the U23 K1 M.
Overall a very productive World Championships with performances being laid down by the majority of the GB squad leading to widespread finals and semis. All on the team want to thank Peak UK for their support and supply of the game changing Racer ST’s which ultimately made the difference when the racing got tight.
Article: Ben Haylett
