Western Australian Institute of Sport kayak athletes Jesse Phillips and Stephen Bird have secured their spot in the K2 200m boat for this month’s World Championships in Poland.
The national champions earned their national team jerseys after defeating the South Australian pair of Chris Alagich and Matt Goble in a selection trial at the Australian Institute of Sport’s European base in Varese, Italy.
Phillips and Bird held their nerve to finish 0.31sec ahead of Alagich and Goble in a fast time of 33.09secs, in a paddle that WAIS Head Coach Ramon Andersson described as a “fantastic effort”.
Andersson believes the result will instill confidence into the pair ahead of the World Championships in Poznan from August 19-22.
“There has been a lot of pressure on the boys at a number of events from nationals through till now and they have delivered each time,” Andersson said. “They should take confidence from their time going into Worlds as it was a World class time.”
Phillips and Bird now formally join WAIS C boat (canoe) paddler Ferenc Szekszardi in the World Championship team to equal the highest number of WAIS athletes in a senior team to World Championships.
The timing of the pair’s success is crucial, with the International Olympic Committee only recently adding the K2 200m event into the Olympic event calendar. With the WAIS duo currently the top ranked Australian crew over the distance, competing at World Championship level will provide great experience in the lead up to the London Olympic Games in 2012.
Meanwhile, most of the other WAIS paddlers will line up in the 133km Avon Descent this weekend. Record entries have been taken for this event which is a feature of the WA sporting calendar and has attracted World Class paddlers from South Africa, USA and the Eastern States. Poor winter rainfall has the event starting with what could be the lowest water level in the history of the race.
Low water levels will mean paddlers will need to portage many sections of the river and shooting the rapids will be a real bump and grind and a lottery as to whether the kayaks and surf skis will get damaged or not.
Race Record holder Brendon Sarson (Balcatta) will be one of the race favourites with South Africa’s former World Marathon Champion Hank MacGregor and brothers Daryl and Brett Bartho also from South Africa. However, the race will be one of attrition with many predicting a winning time in excess of 12 hours which is four and a half hours slower than the race record, meaning the plastic surf skis could come into play.
The plastic surf ski is traditionally the boat of choice for novice and beginner paddlers, however improvements in construction and technology mean that these craft are now only marginally slower than the conventional carbon fibre/kevlar/fibreglass racing craft, and given that paddlers can shoot rocky rapids without the need for portages, paddlers like Michael Baker (Tuart Hill) could come into their own. For further updates and to pick the best vantage points to watch this spectacular go to http://www.avondescent.com.au/.
