World Rafting Champs 2013 - Day 2

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 CLASH OF THE TITANS AS RAFTING GIANTS GO HEAD TO HEAD

New Zealand took two gold medals on the Day 2 – with a comfortable win in the Women’s Masters and a more hard fought second win for the Men’s Masters.

The best race of the day was a hotly contested Men’s Open final with Brazil and Chile providing spectacular action as the boats clashed during the first half of the race. Brazil then took a lead which they maintained until the end – but the result was some time coming after the Chileans protested the Brazilian paddlers for too much contact. When the result was confirmed, the protest was upheld and it was a first gold medal in the competition for Chile. This put them in the Overall points lead, ahead of Brazil and yesterday’s winners New Zealand – who finished eighth today.

It looked all over for a finals place for the New Zealand Women’s Open crew, as they crossed the line behind the Brazilians in the semi – but the international judges spotted an infringement from the winners and penalised them ten seconds, forcing a reversal of the result and putting the home nation into the final against the quick Slovakians. The USA then added insult to injury in the B final – beating the fancied Brazilians into fourth. The Kiwis lined up against the Slovakians in the final but could not prevail in another exciting final and had to settle for silver. They retained second overall, however, with two days to go.

The Kiwi lady’s Masters crew had a straight final against the Russians and led away until getting snagged about two thirds of the way down the course. This allowed the Russians to catch up dramatically but the Kiwi girls took a deep breath and took the more risky but faster line through the awesome Powerhouse section at the finish – they stayed upright and sealed a popular gold medal in the H2H and took a commanding overall lead against the Russians in the Masters category. In the Men’s Masters, New Zealand continued their winning way, taking a second gold with victory against the Czech Republic in the final. Costa Rica took bronze today and the overall picture reflected todays result with the Kiwis in first place, the Czech Republic in second and Costa Rica in third.

The Okere River is also known as the Kaituna and is famed for its ability to provide thrills and spills for rafting trips. It was no different for the world’s best today as many crews came to grief on the water in the Head to Head – a knockout format one on one over a three and half minute course which really did test the skills of the crews.
Several made it through the course only to get hung up on rocks metres away from the finish line. The Japanese women who were flipped from their boat as it dug into the rapids at the very last obstacle – the Weir – possibly costing them the race. All were fine and after an action-packed day of racing only a handful of bruises were reported.

In white water rafting, there are four disciplines - the Sprint, the Head to head, the Slalom and the Down River. Each counts as an individual event, but also contributes a percentage of the overall crew score and it is this final score which determines the Overall World Champions. The Sprint is worth 10%, the Head to Head 20%, the Slalom 30% and the Down River 40% of the final scores.

Tomorrow it is the Slalom on the Tarawera River at Kawerau and more spectacular action is guaranteed.