Aussies set for semi finals in La Seu d'Urgell

Robin Bell cruised comfortably into Sunday’s semi finals of the World Cup in La Seu d’Urgell with a third place finish in the heats. The Western Australian finished behind Tony Estanguet of France and Slovakian Alexander Slafkovsky on both runs. Estanguet had laid down an impressive score of 100.28 on the first run to take a commanding lead of four seconds. Bell and Slafkovsky gave chase on second runs each improving their running times and closely matching the Olympic champion for speed. However, Estanguet again cleared the course to finish up over five seconds in front with a score of 203.32.

Matt Gabb also performed well in the heats to finish 14^th in a field of 41. The 22 year old improved from 18^th place on the first run and Head Coach, Mike Druce, was upbeat about Gabb’s progress. “Matt has come a long way on this tour and his progression is demonstrated by his improvement on the second runs. At this rate he will be knocking on the door of the finals sooner rather than later.”

In the women’s kayak event Louise Natoli and Victoria Milne were comfortable qualifiers for Sunday’s semi finals finishing in 12^th and 15^th places respectively. It was another story for Kate Lawrence who rolled at gate 2 and then struggled throughout her run to finish in 40^th place at the break. A determined effort saw the NSWIS/AIS athlete lay down the 16^th fastest second run to secure her qualification for the semi final.

In the afternoon session the C2 crew of Mark Bellofiore and Lachlan Milne qualified in 11^th position while Anthony Brown and John Wilkie finished in 19^th and 32^nd respectively in the men’s K1 event to go through to tomorrow’s competition. Robert Parker was the only Australian not to qualify finishing outside the top forty in 46^th position.

After a long day of qualification course changes and demonstration runs take place tonight at 7pm local time. Semi finals take place tomorrow (Sunday) starting with the C1 class at 9am . Finals begin at 11:52am.