World Cup #1 Report
4/2000
by Jennifer Hearn
Greetings from Down Under at the Penrith Whitewater Stadium. Scott Shipley won a bronze medal in World Cup # 1, while David Hearn, Cathy Hearn and Lecky Haller & Matt Taylor had finishes in the top 10. Rebecca Giddens, David Hepp & Scott McClesky, and Brett Heyl also made the Final.
The slalom course design was set by two former French racers, Sylvain Curinier (1992 Olympic Silver Medalist) and Vincent Redon, now coaches for France and Canada respectively. The Qualifier course was a fast straight forward open design featuring a double up right left combination at gates 18 and 19, below the second bridge, requiring a quick controlled surf across the "deep fryer" hydraulic. An equal number of righties and lefties made the C1 final with Slovakia's Juraj Mincik leading the way with the fastest time of 109". Switzerland's Sandra Friedli won the ladies class, while Germany's Mandy Planert had the fastest run of the day. Slovakian brothers Hochschorner won with the fastest clean run in the C2 class, while Spain's Esteban Arakama surprised many with two clean runs to edge Scott Shipley into second place. Austria's Helmut Oblinger owned the fastest clean run of the day.
The Qualification race also served as Olympic selection for several Teams including the Australians. Going into this race the C2 teams of Andrew Farrance & Kai Swoboda and Andrew Wilson & Rob McGuinness had one win each in the Australian Selection races just two weeks prior. Just to keep things interesting each team 50'd the same gate on their first run eliminating any chance of making the World Cup Final. Second runs saw Wilson & McGuiness miss their shot at the Olympic Team by "point 04 of a second" as they were too slow and had 2 touches. As host country, Australia has one automatic boat in each class going to the Games. Congratulations to their Olympic Team: Robin Bell, Danielle Woodward, Andrew Farrance & Kai Swoboda, and John Wilkie. 1992 Olympic Silver Medalist Danielle Woodward was the only Australian Olympian to make it into the Final.
The Slovenians used a combination of the Australian Selection races and the World Cup Qualification event to select a C1, K1W and 2 K1 for their Olympic Team. After a tense couple weekends and juggling of places congratulations goes to Simon Hocevar, Nada Mali, Dejan Kralj, and Fedja Marusis. The Swiss Team must race well to place highly in World Cup #1 plus all 4 of the European World Cup events in June and July to be named to their Olympic Team (K1W and K1). Michael Kurt placed 4th in the Qualifier, while Mathias Roethenmund rose to the occasion in the Final to post the fastest run of the day and placed 5th. Sandra Friedli won the Qualifier and will battle for her place on the Olympic Team against Nadine Kurt. Austrian Violetta Peters had her best international result and placed 6th to meet her required top 7 finish in the Qualifier to keep her position on the Olympic squad. Great Britain, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will hold their Olympic selection races in the weeks to come.
The Finals day saw another warm partly sunny day. The 6 gate changes made for a tighter course featuring a tight offset combination at the middle drop at gates 8, 9, 10, for a down right on the eddy line to down middle in the wave train, moving right through the middle hole into a down right. Gate 11 was an up left in the next pool at the bend in the course. Many of the C1s decided to do a spin on gate 8 which was okay for the righties and a challenge for some of the lefties. Slovakia's Michal Martikan went direct and won with a pair of clean 113 second runs. Great Britain's, Stuart McIntosh placed 4th with a direct, while Davey Hearn went direct to finish 8th. Gates judges threw down a 50 on Martikan at up left 19 below the bridge after his second run for a supposed limbo-body gate line cross from the upstream side. The Slovakian Team Leader won the protest on this bogus call - an ICF slalom rule which should be eliminated anyway.
After a morning of watching many reverse gate 8, the top K1s also did the full spin to set up this tight offset combination. A hidden challenge was the last gate on the course, gate 21, a deep up right above the final drop. This "Feeder" flatwater upstream wasn't going to help any racer. Competitors had to feel the lactic burn while sprinting themselves around and out of the gate, down through the drop, into the wave train towards the electric eye finish. Some brilliant racing was displayed by Great Britain's Paul Ratcliffe posting a pair of clean 108s. Italy's Pierpaolo Ferrazzi wrestled the Silver Medal away from Scott Shipley by "point 23", each posting a pair of clean 109 second runs. France's Frank Adisson & Wilfrid Forgues dominated the C2 class by nearly five and a half seconds total.
In the mix of all of the great racing and training on the Olympic course a sour rumor fueled undercurrent was rippling through the Slalom Olympic Teams. Word has it that a faction of the ICF is attempting to change the qualification rules for Canoe/ Kayak in the 2000 Olympic Games by eliminating the equal distribution of boats to Sprint and Slalom. As published in October of 1997 (and on the ICF web site), any surplus of boat positions earned at the 1999 World Championships, but not claimed by the National Olympic Committees by May 23, 2000 are to be split 50/50 between Slalom and Sprint. In other words, our American C2 (Matt Taylor & Lecky Haller's) Olympic spot is in serious jeopardy. During the World Cup weekend, Davey Hearn carried around a protest sign fastened to a broken paddle shaft that read: "Shame on you, ICF. Honor our Olympic Ideals!". USA Team Leader, Bob Campbell helped educate other participating countries and dispersed information regarding the chronology of events after the ICF Slalom Committee Chairman, Jaroslav Pollert, met with the 26 nation's Team Leaders.
The future of Slalom in the Olympic Games is now again threatened. If the ICF acts in this un- sportsmanlike manner and somehow manages to change their own 2 1/2 year old qualification system, then Slalom will suffer as only 20 countries and 75 athletes (65 boats) will compete in the Olympic Games. How can this possibly help slalom's case to be included in future Olympics?. There are no Greek athletes competing in Slalom. Will Athens build a whitewater course for the 2004 Games? Countries that are directly affected by the loss of the reallocation of Olympic starts are: Ireland, Italy, Czech Republic, USA, Portugal, Brazil, Croatia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, and Andorra. But the entire international slalom community loses if whitewater does not take a stand on this and fight for their rights.
Ironically, Sprint will also be hurt. A maximum of 350 Olympic Canoe/ Kayak athletes are allowed in the 2000 Games. 275 places were available to Sprint and 75 places to Slalom. Only 205 athlete positions were qualified during the 1999 Sprint World Championships, leaving 70 athlete positions or 35 EACH for Slalom and Sprint to be allocated to the next qualified countries. Sprint now wishes to keep all 275 spots, qualified or not, and not share any athlete starts with Slalom as previously agreed. Sprint may not add any new countries, but instead could use these positions for reserve athletes who do not even compete in the Games at all. Previously, Sprint countries were not going to be allowed to enter non-competing athletes in the 2000 Games or face disqualification from competing in the 2001 Sprint World Championships. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is not happy to see athletes at the Olympics who do not compete, because they are trying to keep the total number of athletes around 10,000; otherwise this becomes a difficulty for the host cities. The IOC could cut back the total number of Canoe/Kayak athlete positions in future Olympic Games if there are too many slots used now for reserve Sprint athletes who do not compete in any part of the Olympic Games. Thus, Canoe/Kayak would have a reduced presence at the Olympics under these circumstances.
Now the clock is ticking towards the May 23 deadline for National Olympic Committees to accept their qualified positions. We will have to wait and see what will happen to the surplus of athlete positions. Hopefully the ICF will do the right thing and honor their own qualification system and allow Slalom to add more countries and boats to the 2000 Olympic Games.
