Ljubljana (ICF) – A mini-festival of sport sees a triathlon today (Friday) and a night-time 10km run pass through the streets of Ljubljana. All this is held in conjunction with the 2010 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships, which given the size of the event and the number of nations attending (350 athletes from 48 nations) the main attraction.

Thankfully, there were no more changes to the schedule, the sun broke through the skies and the river gates put a stop to the overflow of the course. By 1.30pm the podium spot was no longer submerged. We were back on.

Star of the show this afternoon was a Mr Fabien Lefevre from France. Breezing through the course on his one and only run, he smashed his fellow racers with a gap just shy of 4 seconds. By the end of the two runs, this gap closed to just over 2 seconds. Germany’s Hannes Aigner was the second fastest in both runs. Third fastest overall was Spain’s Samuel Hernanz.

Making the home crowd slightly nervous were their local heroes, including reigning World Champion, Peter Kauzer. Kauzer missed gate 12 landing himself a 50 second penalty and straight out of the top 40. A considered second run, however, saw Peter back on track. He finished with the fourth fastest time of the afternoon. Also falling well out of the top 40 in the first round was, Jure Meglic, he finished the first heats in 79th place. On his second run, he clocked a decent and clean time of 94.22 finishing just behind Peter.

Great Britain’s Richard Hounslow was pleased with his two runs. On his second he would have moved right up the board but an annoying touch on gate 17 put him in 13th place on the semi-final startlist. Commenting to BCU reporters, he said that he would have just settled with the one run but, as the course will remain the same throughout the weekend’s finals he wanted to try out the course again with a couple of tweaks here or there. By contrast, Lefevre decided to keep his near-perfect first run as his one and only of the day, saving his energy and seemingly confident that he had cracked the course.

Hradilek was another 50-pointer on the first run. Also one of the big names and also out of the top 40 after the first round, this could have been a shocker. But his second run was a vast improvement and he finished well within the limits of the top 40 qualifiers. The Czech finished with the 8th fastest time. Both Daniele Molmenti (ITA) and Alexander Grimm (GER) finished a little further up the qualifying table than one might expect. Molmenti’s two clean runs left him as the 6th qualifier while Grimm had touch penalties in both pushing him way back into 15th qualifying spot. We’ll see how this unfolds in the semis.

In terms of surprises, David Ford (CAN) was the first big name to be knocked out of the semi-finals. One of the longest competing athletes, David also raced here in 1991. His clean but slow time in the first heat had pushed him out of the top 40, it all rested on a good second run. It was going well until he missed Gate 19, the middle of the final stagger sequence. That was the end of the World Championships for David. A bad day for Canada, John Hastings also missed out on a semi-final place. He also missed Gate 19, proving that athletes cannot relax at any point on this tight, changing and unpredictable course. Last of the qualifiers was Togo’s Benjamin Boukpeti. He missed Gate 9 on his second run so he had an agonising wait to see if his first run would make the cut. It did.

Men’s K1 semi-finals will be on Sunday morning with the top 10 progressing to the Finals on Sunday afternoon.

Live Results

Click to see live results directly from Tacen, Slovenia.

Video on Demand

Look at the runs of your favourite athletes. Video on demand is the right tool for you.
Video on demand can be found at http://vod.sportstec.tv/

Ljubljana (SLOKA) – The majority of team leaders confirmed revised schedule of 2010 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships.

K1 men’s heats will commence on Friday at 2.30 PM. Second run of men’s K1 heats will commence at 4.15 PM.

On Saturday semi finals and finals for C2 men and K1 women are scheduled. C2 men semifinal will start at 11 AM, K1 women will follow at 11.55 AM. Finals of C2 men will start at 2.30 PM, K1 women will start their final at 3 PM.

Team events finals for C2 men and K1 women will start on Saturday at 4.30 PM.

On the last day of the championships C1 women will start their semi-final at 9.30 AM, C1 men semi-final will start at 10.25 AM and men’s kayak semi-final final will start at 11.45 AM. Finals will then follow at 2.30 PM.

Team events finals for C1 men and K1 men will start at 4.30 PM.

The course design for the semifinals and finals will remain the same as it was in the heats.

More detailed programme is available at SLOKA site http://www.sloka.si/eng/sloka/program.html

Following a detailed analysis of the weather and water patterns and consultation with international TV broadcasters, the Organising Committee in collaboration with ICF will provide detailed information and a revised competition programme at a special team leaders meeting at 18:00h in the Press Centre.

To allow effective regulation of water flows in the competition channel no competition will take place before 14:30pm Friday 10th September.

The first umbrella day of the 2010 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships is successfully over.

Ljubljana (ICF) – Here on the first day of the 2010 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships, both athletes and organisers were put through their paces. The expected downpour has kept those behind the scenes on their toes, but thankfully the careful planning has kept the event running like clockwork.

The Course for the Heats and Friday’s Team Event

Talking to Helen Reeves, ICF Technical Committee Member and course designer for this event, athletes will face a number of challenges. First up is the Big Drop, right at the start of the race it means the course is fast from the outset. This can be intimidating for some, perhaps not for the leaders. So, fast and furious, the course by its very nature is swirly and unpredictable making it very changeable. Add this to the unsavoury weather conditions, the water is even faster; another challenge for the athletes who may find it hard to predict the water. The downstream gates also pose a little problem. The tight stagger sequence quite early on make the combination at Gates 4, 5 and 6 very tricky, reading the water here will be a challenge.

Men’s C2

The day started with the Men’s C2. Qualifying in first place was the British duo made up of Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott. They cleared the field with half a second to spare. The French team, Denis Gargaud Chanut and Fabien Lefevre completed just the one run, safe in the knowledge that their time of 107.12 would put them in the top 20. It sure did. Their one and only run was the second fastest of the day. China’s Hu-Shu team are becoming a regular fixture on the Canoe Slalom startlist. Securing their place with the third fastest time of the day.
Others appearing in the semi-finals on Saturday morning are Slovakia’s Kucera-Batik and the Hochschorner brothers, Great Britain’s Florence-Hounslow. One big surprise was the failure of Czech pair, Volf-Stepanek to get through to the next round.

Women’s K1

Next up was the Women’s K1. On her second run, Maialen Chourraut (ESP) made the course look positively easy winning the best time with nearly a second to spare. Following behind was Czech Republic’s Stepanka Hilgertova and China’s Yingying Zou. Team GB fared well with all three athletes from the Women’s team qualifying. Louise Donnington qualified with the 5th fastest time, Lizzie Neave with the 15th fastest and Fiona Pennie with the 17th fastest time. Jana Dukatova, ranked first coming into the competition, is perhaps saving her best for last, qualifying with the 7th fastest time with her team mate, Dana Benusova with the 9th fastest time. The two Austrians, Corinna Kuhnle and Violetta Oblinger-Peters also made it, while their young compatriot and recent Youth Olympic bronze medallist Viktoria Wolffhardt didn’t quite make it. One Youth Olympian who did make it through however is Australia’s Jessica Fox. She took the last qualifying spot with the 30th fastest time.

Men’s C1

A few surprises in this line-up with all the favourites ending up a little down the list of qualifiers. With the fastest time of the afternoon, Germany’s Sideris Tasiadis will lead the 30 men going into the semis on Sunday. David Florence (GBR) and Takuya Haneda (JPN) follow with the second and third place respectively. In 4th in 5th place were the two Frenchmen. Reigning World Champion, Tony Estanguet finished with a time of 98.89 in his one and only run. Denis Gargaud Chanut’s fastest run was in a time of 100.36. His second run included a 50 second penalty.
Home boys, Anze Bercic and Benjamin Savsek came in together, just one second between them in 9th and 10th times respectively. Michal Martikan, who also just completed one run, qualifies with 11th fastest time followed by his fellow Slovakian, Alexander Slafkovsky.

Women’s C1

Both Jessica Fox (AUS) and Jana Dukatova (SVK) were clearly saving their energy today as they raced just one run. Both of them ended up at the top of the board, Jess was fastest with a time of 123.52, Jana second with her time of 131.85. Both Nanqin Chen and Qianqian Teng (CHN) qualified in 6th and 13th place respectively. Judging by their year’s performance, they may be saving their best for last. Qualifying in third place is France’s Caroline Loir followed by Australia’s Rosalyn Lawrence (last year’s Women’s C1 silver medallist) and Germany’s Michaela Grimm.

Tomorrow we will see the course again with the Men’s K1 heats from 2.30pm (CET) onwards and the Team events on Friday. Come Saturday, we will see a whole new course throwing up more difficulties for these top-class athletes to overcome. Keep watching!

Live Results

Click to see live results directly from Tacen, Slovenia.

Video on Demand

Look at the runs of your favourite athletes. Video on demand is the right tool for you.
Video on demand can be found at http://vod.sportstec.tv/

Video on demand can be found at http://vod.sportstec.tv/

At second place finished Stepanka Hilgertova (CZE), in amazing age 43 years she is still able to be at top. Third was Chinese Yingying Zou.

Violetta Oblinger-Peters (AUT) took 6th place, but in second run she missed two gates. Jana Dukatova (SVK) progress to semis from 7th place. Jasmin Schornberg was not so fast today and stayed 20th, her team-mate Jennifer Bongardt 21th.

Lucky 30th position took Jessica Fox (AUS) and she was the last who will continue in next fights in semi-finals. Unlucky 31th was local Eva Tercelj (SLO).

SLOKA Live Results

Click to see live results directly from Tacen, Slovenia.

Fastest in first class of SLOKA were British Baillie-Stott, second finished Lefevre-Chanut (FRA) and third Chinese Hu-Shu.

Lefevre-Chanut, Hochschorners, Skantars and Benetti-Masoero skipped start in second run and progressed just with good result of first run.

SLOKA Live Results

Click to see live results directly from Tacen, Slovenia.

For live video stream click on button “Show video stream” at right side of plugin.
For fullscreen view click on button at bottom right corner.

For full functionality of this plugin you need to install Microsoft Silverlight.
If you have problems, you can use the older HTML version to see live results.

If you have installed Microsoft Silverlight you can try newer version to see live results and live stream too.

Ljubljana (ICF) – Welcome to Ljubljana where the Canoe Slalom travelling circus has convened to show the world their skill on the wildwaters of the River Sava. Sadly, summer does not seem to be hanging around much of Central Europe this week and rain has closed in on the proceedings here in Tacen. With threat of high water levels on the River, the Organising Committee has taken the situation in hand and tweaked Wednesday and Thursday’s schedules to deal with the onslaught of rain which is expected late Wednesday into Thursday morning.

Two categories have been taken from Thursday’s schedule and added to Wednesday’s. Now Wednesday will feature not just the originally planned Men’s C2 and Women’s K1, but also the Men’s and Women’s C1. This leaves just the Men’s K1 on the water on Thursday afternoon, by which time the water levels are expected to be back to a manageable level.

By Friday, the weather will be back to normal and we can expect sunshine again. Just as Richard Fox told team leaders in the Team Leaders’ meeting, “good weather was in the contract” so we can expect good conditions again later on for the finals.

Fortunately the Opening Ceremony went ahead without any weather disturbance (a chill in the air, decidedly better than pouring rain) and the crowd of athletes, officials, NOC and Organising Committee guests as well as the public, were treated to a great show made up of dance, song and a spectacular display of aerobatic basketball skill. And of course, there was the ever present company of the cool Crayfish mascot.

Going into the competition, we will be looking at the usual suspects, including leaders across the board such as the reigning World Champion, Tony Estanguet (FRA) and his closest rival, Michal Martikan (SVK). Martikan did not really show his true talent during the 2010 World Cups, but he did make a comeback in the European Championships, winning by an outstanding margin on his home course, proving that he is still one to look out for. Otherwise in the Men’s C1 Martikan’s compatriot, Alexander Slafkovsky has had a good year. As has home-boy, Benjamin Savsek. He won silver in Prague and this could be the opportunity for him to shine on home turf. In the Women’s C1, we will see the girls go for it for the second year in a row. Expect strong performances from the Chinese, namely Nanqin Chen, Team Australia and Jana Dukatova (SVK).

In the Women’s K1, it’s wide open. With their good performances throughout the year, any one of the top eight or so in this category could take home the prize. Of course, this being Canoe Slalom there could be some surprises and we should look out for not just the expected, such as Jana Dukatova (SVK), reigning World Champion, Jasmin Schornberg (GER), Stepanka Hilgertova (CZE) but also Fiona Pennie (GBR), Corinna Kuhnle (AUT) among others.

In the Men’s K1, which will begin on Thursday, we will be treated to the Molmenti-Kauzer-Grimm showdown. With the support that Peter Kauzer receives on his home course, it is difficult to see how Molmenti will be able to overcome his closest rival. Of course, Germany’s Alexander Grimm is always there and might just be able to steal the crown. Others to look for are Switzerland’s Michael Kurt, he had a great World Cup season and Slovenian Jure Meglic. Ranked 6th, Meglic could suck up the support from the crowd and turn it into a Slovenian dominated podium.

Live Results

Click to see live results directly from Tacen, Slovenia.