WAIS Athletes Star in Kayak Grand Prix

Published On: 18 December 2008

Jesse Phillips and Steven Bird

WAIS paddlers excelled at the first Grand Prix at West Lakes in Adelaide over the weekend.

Jesse Phillips (Nollamara)and Steve Bird (Mt Pleasant) kicked off their season in style and showed they will be one of the crews to beat this season with victories in the K2 500m and K2 1000m.

Paddling a controlled race in the 1000mPhillips and Bird were able to kick away over the last 250m to win in a time of 3min 23.85sec more than a length ahead of the Michaels twins from NSWIS.

Reece Baker (Marmion) and Luke Morrison (SASI) finished fifth (fourth Australian) across the line. Over the 500m distance Bird and Phillips executed a perfect race plan by sitting half a length back off early leaders Morrison and Matt Goble (SASI) before unleashinga big finish to claim the spoils by about half a length in a time of 1min 34.91sec. WAIS had representatives in two other boats in the final with Lee Davey (Myaree) and Daniel Bowker (Kingsley) in seventh and Michael Baker (Trigg) and Mark Farrugia (NSW) in ninth.

WAIS also scored their first victory in a men’s K4 at this level with Davey, Phillips, Bird and Reece Baker comfortably winning in a time of 2min 58.85sec.

In the K1 events Reece Baker was the best of the WAIS paddlers with strong showings in both events. In the 1000m event Baker was fourth in a time of 3min 30.57 behind Chad Alston (SASI) Luke Michael and Luke Morrison. Over 500m Baker was third in a blanket finish behind Goble and Morrison with Jesse Phillips scoring his best ever K1 result, narrowly back in fourth.

WAIS showed their depth in the K1 events with Daniel Bowker competing for the first time at this level narrowly missing out on the A final but recording a strong fifth placing in the B final with Michael Baker in sixth. In the 500m Bowker, Baker and Bird finished sixth, seventh and eighth respectively in the B final.

Jenni Bateman (Wembley) once again showed that she is able to get the best out of herself in race conditions by being fourth (third Australian) in both the K1 500m and K1 1000m. Bateman’s paddle in the 500m was excellent with only Olympic Bronze Medallist Hannah Davis (SASI) and one of the future stars of the sport Jo Brigden Jones (NSWIS) ahead of her out of the Australian paddlers.