Start of World Championships 2007

The opening ceremony on Sunday night kicked off the World Championships 2007

Team GBR gather for the start of the official opening cermony. All dressed in some gratefully received nice warm down jackets (thanks to TOG24 and Terry Best) and Madyaker T-shirts.

Monday saw the first competitors take to the water in the form of squirt boating. The whole squirt competition was completed on one day allowing for maximum crowd attendance. For the first time in a few World Championships there was a really good eddyline enabling huge mystery moves.

Ben White is under there somewhere!

The Brits were out in full force both on the water and in support on the bank. 5 out of the 10 finalists were brits and this led to 4 medals. The knockout finals provided their usual blows for a few competitors, mainly in the form of mystery moves not working properly. James Reeves was unlucky in this way and just missed out on a medal. Ben White got some amazing downtime all the way through to Gold, and Greg Nicks (European champion) took bronze.

Greg Nicks in a shiny new squirt boat (he first paddled it yesterday morning!)

In the ladies event Claire O'Hara was very narrowly beaten to Gold, after leading through most of the rounds and despite sticking a tricky whu on her last ride, she caught an inconsistent boil on the eddyline meaning she didn't get her mystery move. But, well done to Claire for a fantastic flatwater performance and for getting the Silver medal. Emma Runciman was extremely happy to be in the final in her first international squirt boating competition (having only been paddling squirt for a year) and was even more happy as she consistently moved up each round to earn a bronze medal.

Well done all!

After a couple of weeks of no water Mini Bus has finally, thankfully, arrived!

Billy Harris helixing on Bus

Just a 40 minute queue to get on the low-level wave on Monday. First, and last, day of team training was today, with higher water levels, and I was pleased to just make it onto the wave with the rope which definitely has a certain technique. I wasn't concentrating too much on what to do when I got on the wave as my arms were pumped and hands were cold from the rope, but it was great fun! Luckily we have 2 throw away rides in the heats (Ladies are up on Wednesday) where I can sort out my run plan :)

Men are up tomorrow - will probably be a long day with 4 rides and a long time taken to tow on to the wave. But if today's practice rides are anything to go by we should see some huge air and big moves. Due to the lack of practice time the locals definitely have an advantage, but even with just a short time to get used to the waves the Brits are looking strong.