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Czechs and Slovaks set fierce pace in Prague World Cup
Eight Australian boats qualify for the men's C1 and women's K1 semi finals
On the first day of competition at the Prague World Cup, eight Australian boats qualified for the semi finals on a day in which the Czech Republic and their Slovak neighbours dominated the top placings.
Robin Bell was the best of the C1 qualifiers in 22nd place, his total of 193.14 seconds was 12 seconds behind the winner, European champion, Michal Martikan of Slovakia, who dominated the qualification round with two impressive clean runs and a total time of 180.87 seconds. The Czechs fared well on their home course; Stanislav Jezek was second two seconds back from Martikan with his team mate, Tomas Indruch, in third.
Bell improved his speed on his second run by over two seconds to show the kind of pace needed to make the top 10 and the finals tomorrow afternoon, however, he picked up penalties on gates three and four.
Christian Fabris and Matt Gabb also qualified for the semi finals in the C1 event in 34th and 36th positions respectively.
Veteran Stepanka Hilgertova showed she still has what it takes winning the women’s K1 qualification in a total of 194.41 seconds ahead of Britain’s Laura Blakeman and Mandy Planert of Germany who were close to two seconds back.
Louise Natoli and Kate Lawrence secured their births for the semi finals in 21st and 27th positions and will look for clean runs and a few vital seconds in order to challenge for the top ten finals places tomorrow.
Newcomer, Sarah Grant was the only Australian victim on the course this morning, a fifty second penalty on her first run putting paid to the Victorian’s chances.
Two clean runs made Warwick Draper the best of the Australians in 22nd place with a total score of 180.46 seconds. Anthony Brown also qualified for tomorrow's semi final finishing in 36th place. Robert Parker was inside the top forty after first runs in thirtieth place but dropped out of the semi final on second runs with a penalty on gate 16.
Mark Bellofiore and Lachlan Milne were Australia's only representative in the C2 class producing two solid runs to qualify in 15th place. The Hochshorner brothers showed a clean set of heels to the rest of the field winning by over seven seconds from a full fleet of three German crews who occupied places two to four.
Racing continues tomorrow morning with the C1 semi final at 10 am local time followed by the women's K1 semi final at 11 am. The C1 and women's K1finals commence at 2pm. The men's K1 and men's C2 classes will compete on Sunday.
Results can be found on the event website under Race Info or if you have the correct version of Java on the results link below.
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