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BRAZIL TURN ON THE HEAT IN KAWERAU SLALOM
In the hotly contested Men's Open race - the first round saw the Czech Republic lead after one run with Japan in second and Brazil down the order after a very fast run peppered by too many penalties. They put all that right on their second run with a clean run and fastest time of the day. Japan also ran a clean course, but were marginally slower.
The Czech Republic also went quickly on their second paddle, but collected five penalty points which pushed them into third place. Slovakia were also close in fourth and New Zealand took fifth. All five crews have a chance form overall honours with 400 points on offer for Sunday's Down River - but the Brazilians are in the driving seat and are expected to be very strong on the final challenge as well.
Slovakia made it two wins in two events and set themselves up as favourites for the overall title after a scintillating first run in the Open Women's slalom. Third fastest time and with only 15 penalty points on the first run was enough to give them the lead with a combined total time of 179.19 seconds and that was to prove the best run by any female crew during a busy day.
Proving the overall quality of their national rafting programme, the Czech Republic got closest with an improvement on their second run while New Zealand snuck into bronze medal position on their second run as most crews went for quick times but copped large gate clipping and gate missing penalties.
New Zealand's Women Masters thrashed their sole Russian adversaries in their contest while the Men's Masters was another tightly fought affair, with the Czech Republic keeping their second run error free and quick enough to leapfrog New Zealand who led after the first round. Russia put in a strong performance to take third. New Zealand and the Czech Republic now head into Sunday’s Down River neck and neck on points.
A huge crowd flocked to the Tarawera course in Kawerau, with local organisers putting on a great Riverside Festival to support the competition.
action is guaranteed.
