World Championships - Sprint, men

The World At Our Feet….

After an incredible opening ceremony last night consisting of 45,000 spectators and a parade through Baja Luka, today (Tuesday 19th) was the start of our World Championship Campaign. The championships began with the sprint head to head competition. After an initial time trial teams are seeded then race each other head to head down a fast stretch of challenging white water. After finishing 8th in the time trial we were pitted against the Germans who had a poor time trial and finished 24th. The Germans went off the start line on the less favourable left side very hard to push level with us going into the main rapid. We stuck to our line on the rapid still neck and neck but emerged from the rapid on faster water to take an emphatic win over world class competitors.





The Strong first round opposition of the Germans and the tussle all the way to the bottom of the rapid


For our next round we were drawn against the Cost Ricans, still pumped from our big win against the Germans we shot off the line from taking priority on the right to leave them standing off the start, from which they never recovered. We were now down to the last eight an incredible feat for the team and in a position we had never been in before. Our next pairing was against the Bulgarians, these chaps are quite literally enormous, I glanced across on the start line to my opposite number and immediately wished I hadn’t due to the imposing size of his arms! However the British determination shone through once more as we flew out of the start to put ourselves a slither ahead of the Bulgarians, a position we once again managed to hold until the line. We were in the top four and one race from a medal!!



The beefy Bulgarians getting schooled off the line


Our semi final put us against the Austrian team but due to our battle with the Bulgarians we had lost valuable time and the Austrians were given lane choice off the start. They took the faster right lane from which no team had been beaten from so far in the competition. We had one choice, go hard off the start and push them right as the Germans had done to us, take the hit through the big rapid and hope for the best in the final straight to the line. Our boat shot off the line with a super human effort from all the team to go level with the Austrian team, we executed our plan with military precision to push them right on the rapid so much so that they hit the rock and eddied out. We took on a lot of water through the rapid but powered on through to the finish line to re-write what was possible coming from the less fortunate left side, we had just won our first World Championship medal, but the question now was what colour! We had made it to the final of the Rafting World Championships against the strong and powerful team from the USA. Since our first epic battle with the Germans there had been a mood of excitement and positivity simmering on the raft, there was no way we were going to lose. As we went all guns blazing off the start line in the final in front of a grand stand packed with supporters and 2 million Bosnians watching on television the boat flew through the water to pass the Americans with only the smallest of contact. We went out harder than ever and there was no way we were going to fall behind, as the finish line neared the crowd roared and we paddled our way to a Gold medal in the World Rafting Championships, get in!

Words by The Zach Man.