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For the 5th time in a row the adidas sickline extreme kayak world championships took place in Oetz/Austria at the weekend again. Great weather, perfect water levels and organization and especially the impressive list of world class kayakers made the event as amazing as every year.

As I finished 3rd in 2010, there was a quite a bit of pressure on me. My two qualification runs were all right, putting me in 12th position for the head-to-head final on the more difficult section of the river. I was able to win my first duel against Tomass Marnics, although we both had big problems at the so called “Champions’ Killer” (see picture above), the last drop before the final sprint. This took me to the next round against Michele Ramazza. Apparently, he had a really solid run, but I struggled at the last drop again. That was it, too slow, no super final (top 15) for me this year. I finished 22nd in the end. Well, I’ve already analyzed my mistakes and am looking forward to next year, then racing in the new Pyranha Shiva! Even if this was certainly not my best extreme race so far, I enjoyed paddling the Wellerbruecken-stretch of the Oetz River anyway.

Just like last year, Sam Sutton took home the WC-belt with an outstanding final run. Mike Dawson finished 2nd, Germany’s Paul Boeckelmann 3rd – congratulations to all of them! 7 paddlers finished within only one second, which meant some really tight racing and absolutely no room for mistakes.

For more information, full results, the (re-)live webstream of the super final and more photos, please visit www.adidas-sickline.com.

Continue reading »]]> From June 9th June 12th 2011 edition of the Freeride Worldchampionships took place in Valchiusella and Ivrea, which is in the beautiful Piemonte area in Italy. As the Kaiserklammtrophy in Austria in April was cancelled due to low water levels, this was the first extreme race on my calendar this season.

The Teva event consists of four different races concerning the individual ranking: first off was a long downriver race (roughly between 6:30 and 7 min.) on a pretty steep and shallow stretch of the Chiusella river. The key is to keep the route and especially some mean stones in mind. This was followed by a 2-run sprint race down the slalom course in Ivrea, as well as a slalom race and a boatercross there. The overall results are determined by counting together the points you get for each race.

Just like last year, it was again Mike Dawson from New Zealand, who could win the first three events and therefore also the overall competition. Sam Sutton, another kiwi and Sickline champion 2010, took silver, Michele Ramazza from Italy bronze. Congratulations!

I started pretty poorly into the race, not getting the lines properly down the Chiusella and hitting too many stones. Fortunately though, it got better when I was able to perform a solid sprit race and got second and third in the slalom and boatercross category, respectively. Eventually, it meant the 7th rank for me in the overall result, which I’m happy about. I certainly want to step up a bit next year though!

Concerning the team event, each team made up of three paddlers of one nation had to run the downriver, the sprint and the slalom race. Jakobus Stenglein, Paul Böckelmann and myself formed the German team. After another weak start on the Chiusella, we were more than happy to win both the sprint and the slalom and thus the overall competition. Finally! The second place went to the New Zealand team, followed by the Czechs, who were really strong in the downriver part.

A separate race – the “King of the Falls” – was organized for the top 20 kayakers of the downriver race on another, more difficult stretch of the Chiusella. Ron Fischer from Switzerland had a sweet line down the main drop and took home the crown in front of Maxime Mitaut from France and Sam Sutton. Due to some extra turns in the eddy on the bottom of the big drop, my team mate Jakobus and I finished 5th and 9th, respectively.

For more information, photos and detailed results, please visit the event homepage: www.tevaextremeoutdoorgames.it

Continue reading »]]> Last Saturday I was able to reach the 3rd rank behind Sam Sutton/NZL and Michele Ramazza/ITA in the 2010 edition of the adidas Sickline Extreme Worldchampionships in the Oetz Valley/Austria, which I’m absolutely happy about.

150 competitors from all over the world absolved a tight qualification race first to determine the 48 kayakers who were to fight for the places on the podium on the infamous Wellerbruecke course. Due to the really well organized event, good weather conditions, constant water levels throughout the race days and the incredible media coverage, it was great fun to race in the “super final” with all the strong paddlers.

For more information, reports, results and photos check www.adidas-sickline.com. The live internet stream can still be watched on www.freecaster.tv. Thanks to the fast new Burn!

All photos by Marianne Stenglein/Kanu Schwaben Augsburg  – thanks!

Continue reading »]]> Last Sunday the 2nd edition of the Eiskanal Boatercross as part of the Slalom World Cup took place in Augsburg. Organized by Jakobus Stenglein and Arnd Schaeftlein and supported by Teva, Sandiline and OptimalRad (local bike shop), 32 men and 6 women from 6 nations participated, including several national slalom team members. Wolfgang from Kanu Treff provided several Pyranha kayaks for those who couldn’t bring a boat. After the ramp start, a course with various possible lines promised exciting fights for the first prize - a mountainbike worth 1000 Euro! In the end it was Paul Boeckelmann who won in front of Hannes Aigner and myself (all GER and paddling in Pyranha Burns!). Louise Jull (NZL) took the first place in the girls’ class, Jacqueline Horn (GER) and Luuka Jones (NZL) the second and third, respectively. A great event with lots of spectators that everybody is looking forward to next year!

ramp start

Jakobus racing

competitors

All photos by Marianne Stenglein, thanks!

Continue reading »]]> Last week the Teva Extreme Outdoor Games 2010 took place in Valchiusella and Ivrea/ITA in order to find the new “Freeride Worldchampion”. The kayaking event – which was one among many others, including mountainbiking, bouldering, paragliding and running – consisted of a downriver race, sprint, slalom and boatercross. Around 65 paddler took part in this well-organized competition with pretty good water levels. In the end it was Mike Dawson from New Zealand who took home the title and the prize money. Germany’s slalom expert Fabian Doerfler got second and Dejan Kralj (SLO) third.

I was quite happy with my result, being 6th in the overall result. A couple of times off the line in the long downriver race and in the sprint didn’t allow anything better.

The Kiwis also won the team race, which was a seperate competition, followed by the Slovenians and the Czechs. Team Germany 2 with Philip Baues, Uwe Eichfelder and myself finished 5th.

The highlight of the event with most fun to watch was definitely the “King of the Falls” race, in which a difficult, short stretch (about 1 min.) with a 10m drop in the middle had to be run. Again, Mike Dawson dominated the field and won in front of Dejan Kralj and Honza Lasko from Czech.

Altogether we certainly had some great days of paddling and racing in Italy and are looking forward to being back next year!

I’ll post some photos of the action within the next days!

Continue reading »]]> Last Saturday the first invitational boatercross race at the Eiskanal took place here in Augsburg as part of the slalom worldcup program. Organized by Arnd Schaeftlein and Jakobus Stenglein, incredible paddlers like Mike Dawson from NZ, Dejan Kralj (SLO) and Fabian Doerfler (GER) took part and fought for the 1st prize: a sweet mountainbike! In the end, it was taken home by slalom local Hannes Aigner, who had a stunning final. I myself couldn’t start due to my injury, but took the job of the starter and enjoyed watching the race – just like 1000 (!) other spectators. Wolfgang from Kanu Treff equipped most of the starters with Karnali’s and Burn’s to help making the event a success, which in the end definitely was the case. Now we’re looking forward to more of these races here at the Eiskanal! Here are a couple of shots.

Continue reading »]]> The season is not that old yet, but it has already ended for me this year unfortuntely: Last week I got the confirmation that I have an herniated intervertebral disc, which was caused by kayaking and will probably keep me from paddling for the nexts weeks/months. Damn it… Hopefully it recovers fairly soon!

Anyway, my season so far has been rather average. Concerning slalom, I missed the selection for this year’s important international races. Concerning whitewater and freestyle paddling, we had a couple of really fun trips here in our area, but due to my paddling accident a couple of weeks ago not too many yet for me, unfortunately.

What is good though is that I have been able to give regular kayaking courses to university students here in Augsburg, which is really good fun to see them improve. Fortunately that is also possible with my spinal disc problem.

Sweet, I will try to put some photos online of the season so far within the next couple of days.

Continue reading »]]> Finally, the Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championships have taken place in the Oetz Valley in Austria during the last four days. Unlike last year, when the race had to be cancelled due to high water, the waterlevel was all right this time and pretty constant as well.

The starterfield consisted of around 130 paddlers (5 women) from around the world, both incredible whitewater specialists and world class slalom paddlers. The programm around the event was as amazing as last year – lots of good food, video night, photo contests…

After some really exciting races, it was Thilo Schmitt from Germany who took home the title in the end, followed by Kiwi Sam Sutton and Italy’s Michelle Ramazza. I was able to qualify for the final (best 25) and eventually came 11th, so I unfortunately closely missed my goal to be under the top 10 paddlers. A couple of smaller mistakes in both final runs summed up to this result.

For more information on this really well organized event visit www.adidas-sickline.com. Photos, result lists, daily reports and a little video about the race are available there.

Here are a couple of pictures of myself racing:

Continue reading »]]> The last couple of days I went creeking in the beautiful Val Sesia/Italy and took part in the Teva Outdoor Games.

We ran the Egua and the Sorba several times to be well prepared for the race (downriver, team, slalom, sprint, boatercross), which offered some super-close results in the end! Our team (Jakobus Stenglein, Benny Herbrügger and myself) came second behind the Italians by only about 2 seconds.

I could achieve my personal best result in the slalom (4th place) and ended up on the overall 9th rank in the end. The event was won by Honza Lasko (CZE) in front of Michelle Ramazza (ITA) and last year’s winner Jakobus Stenglein (GER). To sum it all up: great rivers, big event, sunshine, lots of fun!

Here are some shots of the trip: