Race ResultsWRC 2019, Tully
Results, Photos, press releases, etc
EC Wildalpen
Results: OM, U23M, OW; Photos
EC Priboj, Serbia
Results; Photos
EC Nottingham
Results, Photos: -1-, -2-, -3-. H2H Video
EC Romania, Dracula Race
Results; Photos
WRC 2018
All results
more archived Race Results
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By IRF admin, on May 19th, 2019  Today was a test of endurance for the teams competing on the last day of competition of the 2019 IRF World Rafting Championship, powered by Experience Co.
Downriver combines water reading skills and endurance and the Under 19 Australian Men’s team proved they had plenty of both coming over the finish line well ahead of the second team, which was Indonesia, followed by Costa Rica. This clinched the Overall title of World Champions for this young team, showing great promise for the future of rafting in Australia. Indonesia’s second in the Downriver secured them the Silver Medal Overall, with Czech taking the Bronze.
 The Under 23 women had a very exciting and close finish, with New Zealand ahead and hot on their heels were Australia who were being hounded by Indonesia. It was a flat out race for the finish line with the home team being urged on by the excited crowd which turned out, despite the rain and slippery rocks. Indonesia had done enough though to seal the Gold medal for Overall, becoming the U23 World Champions. Second was New Zealand and third Australia, who are actually an Under 19 so deserve extra praise for their incredible performance. This continues to confirm the great future Australia has in rafting.
 Czech were fairly dominant in the Under 23 Men’s category, winning Sprint, H2H and Downriver which gave them the Gold Medal and title of World Champions. Although Japan took second in the Downriver and New Zealand third, the latters better placements in the other disciplines ensured they took Silver Overall and Japan took Bronze.
Japan’s very strong Masters Men’s team were declined a full scoop of Gold medals by the Czech team who won the Downriver. Japan were crowned new World Champions and Czech walks away with the Silver Overall medal. Australia’s Master Men performed very well in the Downriver much to the crowds delight, and secured the Bronze Overall. In the Masters Women it was Australia that took a clean sweep of all disciplines over Costa Rica, making them the World Champions.
 The new Open Women’s Champions are a very familiar team – New Zealand. They’ve taken this spot a number of times before and are one of the most medalled teams in the history of the IRF. Japan’s second in the Downriver ensured they took Silver Overall, with the defending champions, Czech, taking third.
Brazil Open Men reclaimed the World Championship title from the Czechs, a title they have already held seven times before! They did this with a very thin margin of only 7 points ahead of second placed Russia, Brazil having 909 points and Russia 902. Third place Overall was New Zealand who did this by winning the Downriver, ahead of Russia and then Brazil.
And so we congratulate all the new World Champions – Australia U19 Men, Czech U23 Men, Indonesia U23 Women, Japan Master Men, Australia Master Women, New Zealand Open Women and Brazil Open Men – and we look forward to the next clash of these amazing athletes in China 2021.
By IRF admin, on May 18th, 2019 Today teams showcased their strength, precision and determination on the Tully River as the third day of competition of the 2019 IRF World Rafting Championship, powered by Experience Co. kicked off.
 The crowds were booming and the atmosphere was electric as the Open and Master teams hit the Tully River to compete in the slalom discipline. The winner is determined by the team who can navigate the course of slalom poles with the least amount of touches and misses combined with a fast time. Competitors and spectators filled the banks of the river to support and cheer on each team.
 Gate 6 proved to be very challenging for some of the teams, some getting sucked backwards over the next drop and forced to miss out a few more gates. A few teams strategically chose to miss that one, resulting in points being added onto their score but reducing the risk factor. Another gate the proved tricky was Gate 11 which needed good water reading skills, precision and power to get into it. After that there were 3 gates in the big white water with drops.
 Russia Open Men were the only team to get a clear run – twice! An incredible feat. However, it was the Brazilians that pipped them to the win with a blistering speed of 97.2 secs and only a 5 sec penalty. China took third showing that they are a future team to contend with.
It was Japan Master Men team who tamed the Tully River today by taking first place in their division but were only 0.30 seconds ahead of Czechia despite the latter’s first run getting zero penalties. Russia took third. Australia took the win in the Master’s Women category.
 New Zealand Open Women showed their strength and ability to weave in and around the slalom gates having two good runs with their second run of 145.67 including a 10 sec penalty giving them the win. Japan and Czechia also had good second runs which clinched them 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Romania put on the best entertainment with a surf just after gate 12 and a grand finale by flipping!
Tomorrow is the final discipline – Downriver. It’s worth 350 points towards the Overall (the same as Slalom). Brazil Open Men, New Zealand Open Women, Japan Master Men, Australia Master Women and Indonesia U23 Women are all looking very dominant in their categories and will have to have bad day on the river tomorrow to lose the championship, but never say never. The U19 Men and U23 Men still looks wide open.
Results:
By IRF admin, on May 17th, 2019  Czech U19 Men best on the day Today saw sleek moves and great clashes on the Tully River as the second day of competition of the 2019 IRF World Rafting Championship, powered by Experience Co. rolled on by.
The crowds were roaring as junior teams (U19 and U23) hit the Tully River to compete in the slalom discipline. The winner is determined by the team who can navigate the course of slalom poles with the least amount of touches and misses combined with a fast time. Whilst Open and Master teams battled it out in the head to head in the afternoon. Competitors and spectators filled the banks of the river to support and cheer on each team.
The gates of 5, 6 and 7 proved very tricky for the teams, making gate 5 often meant the raft was poorly lines up for the next two gates. It was New Zealand U23 Men’s team who tamed the Tully River today by taking first place followed by Czechia and Australia.
 Australia U23 Men flip Indonesia U23 Women showed their competitors just how to weave through those slalom gates and, although they struggled at some of the gates they still did it well enough to place first followed by Great Britain and Japan.
Czechia U19 Men’s team had a brilliant run with only 15 secs in penalties, the lowest of the day, which resulted in the fastest time of the day of 221.87 secs. This placed them in a convincing 1st place, 40.89 seconds ahead of Australia who flipped their raft adding additional time to their final score. Indonesia took third.
 New Zealand U23 Men slide under the gate Coach of the U19 Australian Mens Team – Mark Miller said, “Overall our first run which we were planning on went down like a treat. Our second run we tried the same plan again and we flipped! But it was all good, no-one injuries, just a few laughs. It was good to get a good result on the first run.”
The afternoon saw the Open and Master division’s teams tackle the Head-to-Head. This sees teams battle it out one on one over the Sprint course in a knockout format, but this time with buoy navigation mandatory. Contact is permitted as long as not considered dangerous. This sees great tactics being used by teams as they try get ahead as they negotiate the buoy. The crowds were well entertained with great clashes at the last buoy on river right. Some fierce tussles were fought right in front of them keeping them enervated and excited by the action. If you’ve seen BoaterX – increase the contact and
obstacles and you’ll understand Head-to-Head.
In the Masters Women’s final the local crowd were delighted by an Australian Gold medal, with Costa Rica taking Silver. There are some very experienced racers in the Master Men category – namely Japan MM who had the fastest times of all teams at WRC 2017 in Japan, and they proved their abilities again by taking the Gold. They beat the Czechia team, also an extremely experienced team, and to the delight of the crowd, Australia took the final podium position.
 Australia and Costa Rica Masters Women in the H2H Some interesting tactics were used by some teams, and many were well entertained by New Zealand Open Men’s team’s wild tactic to get ahead of Japan at the third buoy. This failed and Japan went on to take the Silver, beaten by an excellent team from China, who were racing in their first ever WRC. Third place was taken by Russia. The Open Women saw the continuously excellent New Zealand Open Women taking the top honours, Japan in second and last year’s World Champions, Czechia, taking third.
Racing continues tomorrow with Slalom for the Open and Master’s categories, while the U19 and U23 teams get a well-deserved day off.
Results and media
By IRF admin, on May 16th, 2019  Today marked the first day of competition of the 2019 IRF World Rafting Championship, powered by Experience Co. on the River Tully.
Tully is playing host to over 400 competitors and support crew from 19 different nations.
The excitement was electric as teams hit the river to compete in the Sprint discipline – the winner is determined by the fastest team from start to finish. Competitors and spectators alike lined the banks to cheer on teams with the loudest cheers for the home nation crews.
Australia Masters Women came first in their division, eight and a half seconds ahead of Costa Rica.
Australian Under 19 Men tamed the Tully river by taking first place followed by Indonesia and Czech Republic.
Australian Under 19 Women showed the country how it is done competing in a division above in under 23s and still placed first ahead of the highly anticipated to win New Zealand and Indonesia.
Costa Rica Open Men team captain Alex Sagura said, “We’ve been waiting for this to happen in Australia for the last 20 years, finally here we are. It was a really good race, nice place, nice river, nice people, Australians are amazing.”
The afternoon saw the Under 19 and Under 23 divisions teams tackle the Head-to-Head. Head-to-Head sees teams battle it out 1:1 over the sprint course but this time with buoy navigation mandatory – full contact is permitted in a knockout competition where the winner is decided not necessarily on who is fastest but who plays their tactics the best. If you’ve seen BoaterX – increase the contact and obstacles and you’ll understand Head-to-Head.
In the Under 19 Men final, Australia took the battle right to the finish line with some strong tactics in play by Costa Rica. Australia were able to pull through from the core to push the Costa Ricans back and take on the win with a narrow margin.
In the Under 23s, the Indonesian women took the battle and used tactics right up to the line with a neck and neck final with New Zealand. The Under 23 men’s races saw Czech Republic take home the medal over New Zealand.
Racing continues tomorrow with Head-to-Head for the Open and Masters categories in the morning and Slalom for the Junior and Youth categories in the afternoon.
Results:
By IRF admin, on May 11th, 2019 by Mark Hirst
Welcome to the IRF family Zach, Aaron, Dustin, Emily, Ellie, Michael, Brodie, Thomas, Santiago, Dave, Will, Sarah, Heidi!!!
 I had been email in email contact with Zachary from Northwest Rafting in Oregon USA for over 2 years trying to find the time for Zach to attend an instructor workshop. His drive and enthusiasm were really impressive
We both finally decided that Zach & his crew at Northwest Rafting should host their own IRF workshop in the states.
Considering that the rafting industry in the USA is probably the largest in the world the IRF is massively under-represented in the USA, but this is changing fast.
Continue reading IRF gets a great GTE workshop done in Oregon, USA!
By IRF admin, on May 9th, 2019 
This is a summary of the Jirrbal story. The Aboriginal Traditional Owners of the Tully region would like to ensure that they promote and share their land, language and culture to visitors from around the world and locally. They wish to share the importance of their unique and different perspective of the country and how they see and read the land, in particular the Tully River. Their connection to the Tully River and other tributary rivers in the local areas are seen through this “The Water Story”.
Once there was a time when the animals wandered the land looking for water.
They searched and searched but couldn’t find enough for even the smallest animals to drink. Bangarra (blue tongue lizard) was the Keeper of The Water, so Yuri (big kangaroo) went to him for help. Bangarra told Yuri ‘go and dig in that dry creek there.’ ‘We did that,’said Yuri , ‘and we found none.’ ‘Well,’said Bangarra ‘when I need water I go and chew the bulban (kangaroo grass).’
The Kangaroos went away and dug deeply around the roots of the bulban, until they became very hot, very cross, and very thirsty, but still there was no water.
The great thirst spread over all the land and all the animals gathered together to talk about how they could get water. There was Biyu (frilled neck lizard), Gujila (bandicoot), Midin (ring tail possum), Barngan (kangaroo rat), Gumbiyan (echidna), Gugara (black goanna), and many others. They had all seen Banngarra with a wet nose and knew that he must be hiding water somewhere.
They began to watch him closely but he was too clever for them, always checking over his shoulder to make sure he wasn’t being followed. They didn’t know he kept the water covered with a smooth flat stone that fitted so closely into the earth that no dampness showed around it.
Then Yuri was sent up to Limestone Creek to find Galu (rainforest rat). Yuri asked Galu to follow Banggarra and find out what he could. ‘You’re quick and sneaky, you can follow Banggarra’ said Yuri to Galu. So the next time Banggarra went to his water source, Galu crept up behind him. When Banggarra looked over his right shoulder, Galu quickly jumped to the left. When Banggarra checked over his left shoulder, Galu quickly crouched down on the right. Galu couldn’t be seen because he looked just like one of the stones scattered on the ground.
When Banggarra got to the secret place of water and carefully lifted the stone with his yam stick, Galu rushed in and pushed the stone aside. There was a tremendous noise and water came bursting out of the ground and began flooding everywhere.
Then the kingfishers skimmed along ahead of the flood, carving out channels with their beaks to hold the precious water. The Tully River came down from the hills one way, the Murray river came down another way and the Herbert River flowed away behind the ranges until it came to the sea. The kingfishers kept on working until they had formed all the tributaries in the area, like the Jarrah, Marquette, and Banyan creeks. Of course, all the animals now had all the water they wanted and they told Banggarra that nevermore would he be boss of the water.
By IRF admin, on May 8th, 2019 Tully, Australia, is slowly filling up with rafters from the far corners of the world. Some are arriving early so as to be familiar with the river and location once the racing starts. Others will stay on afterwards to sample the attractions of this far north section of Queensland. And all will enjoy typical Aussie fair while there … but what is typical of that part of Australia?
 Tully Golden Gumboot To see and do in and around Tully:
Going further away from Tully you have:
- Just off the coast: Great Barrier Reef – needing no explanations! A must-do/ bucket list item. Get out there and get snorkelling!
- Mission Beach – beaut beach worth visiting
- And so much more! Check ExperienCo out for more ideas
To Eat – typical to Queensland:
-
 Barramundi Lots of sea food! “Delicacies such as Moreton Bay bugs, mud crabs, king and tiger prawns, mackerel, sea scallops and fresh barramundi.
- Delicious range of fruits, such as avocados, mangoes, pawpaws, pineapples, strawberries and bananas.
- Native Macadamia nuts are found in all kinds of concoctions including desserts, and in salads” says Worldtravelguide.net
To drink – the alcohol options:
- The local beer is XXXX or better known as 4-X
- This is where Bundaberg Rum is made, using the locally grown sugar cane.
Animals to try see:
Slang you may need to know:
- G’Day – Hi!, Hello!
- No worries – no problem
- Give it a burl – make a try!
- Good onya – good for you
- Piece of piss – very easy task
- Barbie – barbecue
- Tinny – beer in a can
 Brekkie – a breakfast- Bikkie – a biscuit
- Mozzie – a mosquito
- Sunnies – sunglasses
- Cossie – a swimming suit
- Polly – a police officer
- Pozzy – taking a good position
- Ambo – ambulance, ambulance driver
- Servo – a gas station
- Arvo – an afternoon
- Evo – an evening
- Seppo – an American
- Fair Dinkum – confirming the truthfulness of a sentence
- Apples, she’ll be – It’ll be alright
- Banana bender – someone from Queensland
- Dog’s breakfast – complete chaos, mess
- Footy – Australian football
By IRF admin, on May 7th, 2019  The IRF are delighted to have received an “Intention to Bid” from British Rafting who aim to host the event in the world renowned Lee Valley White Water Centre (LVWWC). The course is a purpose built white-water course, that was constructed to host the canoe slalom events of the London 2012 Olympic Games. During the torch relay for the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Olympic torch made its way down the course on a raft!
The centre is home to some of the top rafting teams in the world, most notably the GBR Open Women’s team who were R4 World Champions in 2016 and have podiumed at each of the IRF European and World Rafting Championships since. A number of U19 and U23 teams train here regularly and have also scooped up many medals over the years.
British Rafting, strong supporters of the IRF, are supported in this bid by British Canoeing, who believe the Lee Valley venue could produce one of the best R4 World Rafting Championships ever. Its central location to the world and especially to the European teams makes it an easy and reasonably affordable location to get to for the vast majority.
The dates they are looking at are late August or early to mid-September 2022.
#AreYouReady #RaftersAreAwesome #StrongerTogether #RiverFamily #WeAreIRF
By IRF admin, on April 29th, 2019  EC Romania – teams from across Europe This year’ IRF Euro Cup series started on the Buzau River in Nehoiu, Romania, fondly referred to as the Dracula Race. Teams from as far away as Great Britain attended the event and were delighted to enjoy a great river in very different surroundings. Team “VIR” of Serbia nearly took a clean sweep of medals, just being beaten in the Sprint by team M.O.E. of Romania, who placed 2nd Overall. Vointa Arad of Romania were looking good for 3rd place, but a 5th in Slalom gave 3rd Overall to team HPP Notts of Great Britain. In the Open Women it was SKK KK NSA of Bulgaria once again taking the overall win by claiming 1st in the Downriver and Slalom. Great Britain’s HPP Notts team took 2nd with wins in Sprint and Slalom, and Atom Kozlodui of Bulgaria took 3rd. Results; Photos
 EC Romania – OM winners The second event in the series is a new addition to the Euro Cup series – EC Nottingham – which was held at the Holme Pierrepont White Water Course in Nottingham and hosted by British Rafting. The Red Rose Rafting team, as the only women’s team, raced in the Men’s category and claimed a very good 3rd Overall! A great showing and hopefully will stand them in good stead when they compete at the 2019 WRC in Australia next month. The Overall winner was Masters of Rubber with HPCC Rafting taking 3rd.
Results, Photos: -1-, -2-, -3-. H2H Video
 EC Priboj – over 30 teams took part EC Priboj on the River Lim in Serbia had an excellent turn out of 32 teams, 15 of those competing in the National Champs! It was great to see Serbian women’s teams coming back into action again. The hosts, Rafting Association of Serbia, are doing an excellent job of promoting rafting in Serbia and also ran a university race alongside the EC race. Eko Lim, the local club, took the Open Men’s and Open Women’s Overall titles, the men’s with a clean sweep of H2H, Slalom and Downriver. In Open Men it was Team VIR who took 2nd Overall, and Kula Stalic 3rd. In the Open Women it was Adventure Net then Atom of Bulgaria that took the final podium spots.
Results. Photos
 EC Wildalpen – OM 2nd & 3rd place Last weekend saw the ever popular EC Wildalpen running at a high water level (but at least not covered in snow like in 2017!). This event had teams coming from a total of 12 nations! Raft Club Sokol Hodonin of Czech Open Men started slowly but claimed the Slalom win and 2nd in Downriver to claim the Overall win. Azimut-Sodis who came all the way from Russia took the Overall Silver, with a much improved Team Augsburg claiming a well deserved 3rd. The Dutch Rafting Team took 1st Overall in the Open Women with a win in Sprint, H2H and Downriver. 2nd Overall and Gold in Slalom went to a strong looking Team DenLand (a mixed team of Danish & Dutch women), and 3rd to Team Troja of Czech.
Results: OM, U23M, OW; Photos
 Netherlands OM have fun in Wildalpen The series standings overall so far in R6 sees HPCC Rafting/HPP Notts of Great Britain the clear leaders so far in the Open Men’s category, having competed and done well at two events. SKK KK NSA of Bulgaria lead in the Open Women. In R4 it is Dayak of BiH that lead. And the Dutch Rafting Team lead the Open Women.
Results so far: R6 OW, R6 OM, R4 OW, R4 OM.
The next Euro Cup race will be after the WRC and will be on the 15 June, in Solkan, Slovenia – EC Soca. See you there!
#AreYouReady #RaftersAreAwesome #StrongerTogether #RiverFamily #WeAreIRF
By IRF admin, on April 26th, 2019 This is always a very busy time in the IRF with the Northern Hemisphere season kicking off, and this year we add to that by having our World Champs and our Congress in May! The racing season picks up pace and there are plenty of GTE Workshops to choose from stretching around the world.
Congress 2019 – 13 and 15 May, Tully, Queensland, Australia!
 Competitions on the near horizon (May/June):
- The big favourite of the Euro Cup events – EC Wildalpen is on this weekend! Keep an eye on our social media to see what’s happening there. 12 nations, 24 men’s teams, 9 women’s teams!
- And don’t forget from 22 to 23 June it is EC R4 Trnavka AND Czech Cup!
 Switzerland is launching itself into the competitive racing world and are holding their National Champs from 18 – 19 May in Château d’Oex, Vaud.
- Slovakia’s National Selections are happening on the 25 May in familiar Cunovo, Bratislava.
- The “Crazy Chuya” event is happening late May on the Chuya-Mazhoi River, Siberia, Russia. Chuya is an infamous river not be missed!
- 7 to 16 June is the Great Altai Cup on the Peschanaya River, Smolenskiy district, Altai Krai in Russia.
- EC R6 Soca, Solkan is happening on the 15 June.
- Brazil have their 2nd R4 National Selection from the 28 to 30 June in Juquitiba.
Guide Training:
There are so many workshops being run in great places!
If you are looking for more exotic places then you need to start planning now and here are some opportunities:
 10 -12 Sept: Indus and Zanskar Rivers, India. Raft guide, safety kayak level 4 and trip leader level 3 assessment.- 15 – 18 Sept: Vuoksa River, Russia. Details.
- 15 – 23 Oct: Zambezi River. Details. Come early for extra training, stay on for Zambezi Whitewater Festival!
- 12 – 16 April 2020: Illinois or Rogue River, USA. Details.
Otherwise take a look at the many courses being run in May and June – choose from Australia, Brazil, Ecuador to Austria, Turkey, Spain, Germany, France and Bosnia. (See full details here)
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Photo Albums
 WRC 2014, Downriver  WRC 2014, Sprint  WRC 2013, H2H  WRC 2013, Slalom  WRC 2013, Slalom  ERC 2014  ERC 2014  World Cup Canada 2012 |
Today was a test of endurance for the teams competing on the last day of competition of the 2019 IRF World Rafting Championship, powered by Experience Co.
The Under 23 women had a very exciting and close finish, with New Zealand ahead and hot on their heels were Australia who were being hounded by Indonesia. It was a flat out race for the finish line with the home team being urged on by the excited crowd which turned out, despite the rain and slippery rocks. Indonesia had done enough though to seal the Gold medal for Overall, becoming the U23 World Champions. Second was New Zealand and third Australia, who are actually an Under 19 so deserve extra praise for their incredible performance. This continues to confirm the great future Australia has in rafting.
Czech were fairly dominant in the Under 23 Men’s category, winning Sprint, H2H and Downriver which gave them the Gold Medal and title of World Champions. Although Japan took second in the Downriver and New Zealand third, the latters better placements in the other disciplines ensured they took Silver Overall and Japan took Bronze.
The new Open Women’s Champions are a very familiar team – New Zealand. They’ve taken this spot a number of times before and are one of the most medalled teams in the history of the IRF. Japan’s second in the Downriver ensured they took Silver Overall, with the defending champions, Czech, taking third.
The crowds were booming and the atmosphere was electric as the Open and Master teams hit the Tully River to compete in the slalom discipline. The winner is determined by the team who can navigate the course of slalom poles with the least amount of touches and misses combined with a fast time. Competitors and spectators filled the banks of the river to support and cheer on each team.
Gate 6 proved to be very challenging for some of the teams, some getting sucked backwards over the next drop and forced to miss out a few more gates. A few teams strategically chose to miss that one, resulting in points being added onto their score but reducing the risk factor. Another gate the proved tricky was Gate 11 which needed good water reading skills, precision and power to get into it. After that there were 3 gates in the big white water with drops.
Russia Open Men were the only team to get a clear run – twice! An incredible feat. However, it was the Brazilians that pipped them to the win with a blistering speed of 97.2 secs and only a 5 sec penalty. China took third showing that they are a future team to contend with.
New Zealand Open Women showed their strength and ability to weave in and around the slalom gates having two good runs with their second run of 145.67 including a 10 sec penalty giving them the win. Japan and Czechia also had good second runs which clinched them 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Today marked the first day of competition of the 2019 IRF World Rafting Championship, powered by Experience Co. on the River Tully.
I had been email in email contact with Zachary from Northwest Rafting in Oregon USA for over 2 years trying to find the time for Zach to attend an instructor workshop. His drive and enthusiasm were really impressive
Brekkie – a breakfast
The IRF are delighted to have received an “Intention to Bid” from British Rafting who aim to host the event in the world renowned Lee Valley White Water Centre (LVWWC). The course is a purpose built white-water course, that was constructed to host the canoe slalom events of the London 2012 Olympic Games. During the torch relay for the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Olympic torch made its way down the course on a raft!
Competitions on the near horizon (May/June):
Switzerland is launching itself into the competitive racing world and are holding their National Champs from 18 – 19 May in Château d’Oex, Vaud.
10 -12 Sept: Indus and Zanskar Rivers, India. Raft guide, safety kayak level 4 and trip leader level 3 assessment.
