Australians Fly the Flag on National Day of Celebration

 

The Men’s K1 semi finals hit the intimidating and newly shaped course first up and the initial participants struggled with the difficult course, particularly through the triple up section at the bottom of the course.

Times were consistently above 100 seconds before Australian Sam Lyons (pictured) broke the barrier with a time of 99.04. His run earned him a spot in the 10 person A Final with a ranking of 7^th.

Following Lyons were a host of big names as the favourites for the titles began to flex their muscles. Slovakian Peter Kauzer will lead the field into the A final after he secured a clean run of 96.02. Kauzer was quick through all sections of the course and negotiated the tricky “stopper” between gate 18 and 19 with ease. Hot on his tail though are a French triumvirate of Julian Billaut (97.08), Fabien Lefevre (97.28) and Benoit Peschier (98.75).

Other names to make the top 10 include Sebastian Combot (France), Brits Richard Hounslow and Campbell Walsh and two further Australians, Anthony Brown and William Forsythe. The biggest surprise was the demise of number one seed and 2005 world champion Fabian Dorfler, who came home in 12^th to miss a spot in the A Final.

Local hopes were dashed in the C2 class when Mark Bellofiore and Lachlan Milne picked up a 50 second time penalty to miss out qualifying for the A Final. The pair were seeded third coming into the semi finals but will now be left to contemplate what could have been.

Peter and Ladislav Skantar hold close to a 3 second lead heading into the final of the event after recording a time of 110.39. They lead from Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott (Great Britain) and Pierre and Christophe Luquet of France.

The Women’s K1 threw up a few surprises but also so some fantastic results for the Australian girls. Defending champion Violetta Oblinger – Peters (Austria) set the quickest time of 110.21 seconds to lead from Australian Louise Natoli and Mathilde Pichery (France).

Behind the leading three are the three Lawrence sisters who will all be pushing for a medal later in the day. Jacqueline, Kate and Rosalyn will look for a big performance in the final to chase down Natoli and the other front runners.

Fellow Australians Amanda Pain and Sarah Grant are also through to the A Final, with another big name, Jana Dukatova crashing out of contest after picking up a 50 second penalty on the tricky gate 17.

In the Men’s C1 the big three of Tony Estanguet (France), Robin Bell (Australia) and Michal Martikan are 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th respectively, with Great Britain’s Stuart McIntosh splitting them in 3^rd position. Estanguet was last down the course and set the quickest time of 101.42 seconds, to lead by 0.84 of a second from Bell.

This afternoon the B Finals will commence at 2.45, with the A Finals to get underway at 6pm.