Dorfler Impresses in Penrith

 

In the second year of operation the World Series has attracted a high class field to Australia and the Men’s K1 were the first to paddle down the 2000 Olympic course.

After the first qualifying run, 2005 world champion Fabian Dorfler (Germany) led the field with a time of 91.57, completing a clean run along the way. Dorfler, who won his world championship on the same course in 2005, looked confident across the water and completed his second run of to lead the way into the semi finals on Saturday morning with a time of 185.79. He leads from Campbell Walsh of Great Britain and Australia’s Anthony Brown.

With the qualifying runs being used to seed athletes ahead of the semi finals, all competitors were keen to get a feel for the course, before the top 10 in the semi finals progress through to the final on Saturday evening.

All of the big names from France were in the mix after the qualifying runs, with a showdown expected in the event on finals day. 2004 Olympic champion Benoit Peschier will be seeded 4^th going into the semi finals, with 2007 world champion Sebastian Combot 20^th and 2006 world champion Julien Billaut in 11^th.

Brown was the best placed Australian after the qualifying runs with a total of 186.79, leaving him in 3^rd place. Brown’s consistency across the two runs was noticeable with no penalties being recorded. With the qualifying runs also acting as the National Championships for the Australian athletes, Brown took out the crown for 2008.

Robbie Parker is the second placed Australian after Friday with a seeding of 10^th. Australia’s Will Forsythe rounded out the national placings in 3rd after being the quickest down the course in the first run. Forsythe set a time of 91.52 but after clipping a gate was penalised two seconds and dropped to fourth place after the first qualifying run before incurring 6 seconds of penalties in his second run to be seeded 18^th going into the semi finals.

Josh Williams had a sensational run finishing 2nd fastest behind Forsythe in the U23 category for the National titles. Ben Horlyck also performed well finishing fastest in the U18 age group.

Following a break in the middle of the day the Women’s K1 and Men’s C1 and C2 qualifying runs will be held starting from 2pm local time.

Final Qualification Standings:
Fabian Dorfler
Campbell Walsh
Anthony Brown
Benoit Peschier
Mike Dawson

National Men's K1 Championship Results:
Anthony Brown
Robert Parker
William Forsythe