Richard Fox, Tuesday, 4 December 2001
A good turn out of local and some inter State slalom athletes braved a wet and chilly Sunday at the Goulburn River near Eildon in Victoria for the annual State titles.
Eildon, Victoria -- A good turn out of local and some
inter State slalom athletes braved a wet and chilly Sunday at the Goulburn River
near Eildon in Victoria for the annual State titles. A testing course set by
Zlatan Ibrahimbegovic, the new VIS
scholarship coach who will be based in Victoria from January,
awaited close to one hundred
competitors with many younger paddlers swelling the ranks.
The State
Championships was the third canoeing event inconsecutive weeks at the Goulburn
following on from the Canoes Plus country
series finals and the Victorian TID camp which was attended by 54
junior athletes.
Warwick Draper and Andrew Stamp, both AIS National Team Members and VIS scholarship holders took
out the honours as expected in the K1
event finishing first and second respectively. However, some poor
judgement cost Stamp severely on his
first run as he pulled into the eddy before crossing the finish beam.
Kai Swoboda and
Andrew Farrance were untested in the C2
event and were able to win the C2 class despite a major error on the
first run. A clean second run saw
the VIS pair regain their usual form and demonstrated their domination of this
event.
VIS and
AIS athlete Mia Farrance was the comfortable winner of the State title in the Open Ladies
Kayak class however the best time of the
day came from the former Victorian, Louise Natoli now of NSWIS, who
showed a blistering pace on both
runs. Encouraging too were the performances of the rising young athletes, Kate Lawrence from
NSWIS Leanne Guinea from Victoria and
Amanda Pain from NSW who are closing down the gap on the senior
athletes.
In the
C1 event, multi skilled Warwick Draper was once again State Champion in this canoe class ahead
of local paddler, David Heard. Liam
Garvey produced the best performances from within the junior ranks demonstrating the rising talent in the C1
class in Victoria.
Following the State Championship the elite athletes
head for Tasmania for an AIS and
State Institute National training camp while others prepare for the Age Nationals which take
place at Nymboida starting on
January 10th. At the end of January
the Goulburn River will be the venue
for the final round of the junior selection events at the annual Canoes Plus Australia Day
slalom.
For full results click
here.