US Team News, 6/18/09

World Cup # 2, Bratislava, Slovakia.  Results are in from the very challenging Bratislava World Cup Race.  Benn Fraker was the top-placing American, in 6th.  Congrats to Benn.  He was the only American to make the finals; Scott Mann placed 38th in the qualifier, and Aaron Mann 47th.
Of note: there were seven competitors in the C-1W class, from Slovakia, Australia, and China.  Some solid results were posted.
Check out full results by going to
http://www.mates.sk/
Click on "Canoe Slalom World Cup - Second Race" and so on.

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World Cup #1, results from Pau, France: http://www.paucanoe2009.com/en/?p=18
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Some US Team members at Prague World Ranking Race
A selection of US team members attended the World Ranking Race, in Prague, the Czech Republic.  Others rested for the World Cup this coming weekend (June 27-28). Jim Wade and Jure Poberaj advanced to the semi-finals, placing 17th and 20th overall.  Of note was a Japanese C-1 who qualified through to the finals, placing 9th.  Full results on the Czech site: http://www.results.cz/liveres.php
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US Team Posts Good Results at Foix World Ranking Race
from US Head Coach Silvan Poberaj

This past weekend, June 13-14, 6 US K-1's (Brett Heyl, Scott Mann, Aaron Mann, Austin Kiefer, Jure Poberaj, and Jim wade) and 3 C-1' s (Benn Fraker, Zach Lokken, and Tyler Hinton) participated in the World Ranking race in Foix, France. Three additional K-1 Juniors (Michal Smollen, William Farmer, and Wilkening) participated in a separate Junior class.

In K-1, Brett Heyl, Scott Mann and Austin Kiefer made it to the final. On a very hard and technical final course, Brett had an excellent race, placing 3rd behind the 2007 World Champion Combot of France, and Doby Mathew, a French national racing for Belgium.

Scott Mann had the 3rd best time of the final, but a 2 second penalty put him in 5th place.

Kiefer finished 8th with a penalty and some smaller technical errors.

Jure Poberaj and Jim Wade were fast enough to make it to the Finals, but penalties pushed them out of top 10. Jure finished 12th, Jim 14th.

Aaron Mann had too many technical errors and penalties in the Qualifications to progress to the Semifinals.

In C-1 Qualifiers, Benn Fraker showed good form with a result very close to that of the legend Tony Estanguet. In the semifinal, however, Benn missed a hard move and received a 50" penalty. He was attempting a faster but much riskier line, direct instead of spinning; the majority of other C-1's chose the spin.

The water and course configuration proved too demanding for the young Zach Lokken and Tyler Hinton, who did not advance from the Qualification round.

Although the K-1 junior results were posted separately, and are not yet available, the other complete results are posted on this French website:  http://www.foixcanoe2010.com/fr/?p=78