The most testing slalom ever seen in the IRF 2011 World Rafting Championships, with 14 extremely testing gates. Many say gate 3 is impossible… So we will see! Gates 8+9 are both upstream gates on opposite sides of the river to each other, and extremely difficult to do both, many teams choose one or the other.

Gate 10 has a submerged rock to the right and a hole below it, with Gate 11 being very close after and which has a big rock creating a pillow before it. It is an upstream gate. Gates 12, 13, 14 are all downstream in very tricky water with pillows + surges.

Here is a run down of what went down in Round 1 & 2 of the slalom today mostly from the region of gate 8 and 9 (both upstream gates) where the majority of the excitement was:

Women:

• Bulgarian women wrap raft near gate 10 of course.
• Canada women flip on rock at Gate 10.
• Netherlands women eddy out below rocks at Gate 9 + carry over to paddle trough it.

Men:

• Colombia flip at gate 14 !
• Netherlands men are first to make Gates 8 and 9. Canada are second. Slovenia 3rd and do what looks like a very good run. New Zealand great run too !
• Crowd goes wild as Costa Rica attacks the course. Looks good. Pura Vida !
• Germany can’t make eddy below Gate 9. They carry up over the rocks.
• Netherlands overshoots Gates 8 and 9 !
• Czech get caught on rocks at Gate 9 + have to climb out and pull the raft up.
• USA men looking good.
• Brasil on rocks at Gate 9 like Czech’s did.
• Great Britain fight their way into Gate 9 eddy.
• Italy just made Gate 9 eddy. Looking good !
• Japan don’t make Gate 9 eddy : a total miss of that gate.
• Slovakia take the left line for Gate 5 and end up mising it, therefore Gate 6 as well. But they do Gates 8 and 9 excellently –  the best so far!
• Chile fight their way into Gate 9 eddy.

Women’s second round:

• Costa Rica women skip Gate 8 and clear gate 9
• Belgium do the
• Japan women flip just below gate 6! Quite a long swim but the safety is excellent, all have safety kayaks right next to them very quickly. Well done to Tori and his team!
• Seems most of the women’s teams have opted to skip gate 8
• Czechs look good and
• USA have a swimmer at gate 14! Not sure if they got back in before finish
• Kiwis looking good!
• Great Britain have heads out on gate 10
• Netherlands go for gate 8 and miss the eddy resulting in missing gate 10. Then they get stuck on the rock next to gate 14 which has already trapped a few other teams earlier
• Hungary gets stuck on the rock that flipped Japan just below gate 6. They manage to climb onto the rock but the raft is well wrapped and takes a throw line and safety to pull it off. The the team is ferried off the rock in twos and to the shore where they once again climb into raft and finish their run.

Men’s second round:

• Colombia men do a good run through 8 and 9 and very nice through 11
• Bulgaria men nearly wrap on the same rock that their women wrapped on in the first round.
• Denmark have a problem at 7 which puts them off the line for 8 and 9
• Croatia comes in too tight on gate 8, can’t hold it and get swept on down missing gate 9 as well
• Aussies mess up gates 8 and 9. (That’ll teach them for beating the Bokke in the Rugby World Cup! J )
• New Rule PLEASE – no Vuvuzela’s at WRC in future! Ouch our ears!
• Argentina miss gate 6
• Canada misses the gate 9 eddy and paddler falls out as they hit the rocks. Just manage to get him back in but miss gate 10
• Slovenia have a good run!
• Nice run NZ!
• Looking good Costa Rica!
• Germany makes the eddy at Gate 9 this time
• Netherlands doesn’t make the eddy at gate 8 and paddler falls out. Theyget him back in but miss gate 10
• Czech 2^nd run through gate 9 looks much better than first but they touch on gate 12
• Close call on one head for USA men on gate 8
• Great Britain looking ok through this section
• Italy’s run is ok
• Japan make eddy at gate 9 fine
• Slovakia have to fight a little to get into eddy at gate 9 and have a helmet touch on one pole
• Raft or person touch on gate 7 for Chile? Yes, touch on gate 6 and 7