WAIS athletes Jesse Phillips (Rivervale)and Steve Bird (Mount Pleasant)opened their European tour with three wins over the weekend at the Italian National Selection Regatta in Milan, Italy.
Paddling with Chris Alagich (QAS) and Matt Goble (SASI) in the K4 500m and K4 1000m, they were able to beat the best of the Italian club crews. Most impressive though, was their win in the K2 200m, triumphing over the Alagich-Goble pairing for a second regatta in a row following their 0.01 sec win at the Australian Championships.
The racing provided an ideal warm up for the duo, who will be looking to impress at World Cup 2 in Szeged, Hungary over the weekend where close to 70 countries will be in attendance.
Meanwhile in Perth, most of the remaining WAIS paddlers will be competing in the local Double Barkers Bridge race over 23km this Sunday.
National Emerging Team member Daniel Bowker (Kingsley) departs next Wednesday for his European tour where he will compete in International regattas in Hungary and Italy.
