World Championships - Sprint, Women

Big Brother is watching, all the head to head runs were filmed from all sorts of funny angles!

Memoirs of a lady champion by Georgie P.

In the ladies event, our first race was with Latvia and we went in very confident taking the win. Netherlands who had the fastest time trial were up against Japan (the only professional team) so we hoped that Japan would win meaning we wouldn’t have to race the sprint winners. Sadly they didn’t, but as with all our races, we secured the fastest time meaning we had lane choice for every race! We chose our favoured start position safe in the knowledge that we have a very strong start. We also had an old score to settle from last year’s European Championships in Austria where we pushed the Netherlands over the finish line securing their win. After a battle at the top of the rapid we managed to hold our line where others had previously been pushed into an eddy and we raced on to an elated win.

The girls ready to destroy Latvia in the first head to head round

The girls prepare for the next round of head to head carnage

Up next in the semi finals, we were pitted against Canada who had also beaten us in the sprint time trial. This race was for a potential bronze medal position. As it ended up we had silver by the time we won this race! A top result from our disappointing start in the time trial positioning 5th. So we headed up for our last run in the final against Slovakia. The Slovaks are well known for their focus, brute strength, competiveness and their lack of friendly banter. We had beaten them once before in the European Champs so knew we were in with a chance by staying positive. Floating down to the start line we were surprised to find that we had pole position once again, as we were expecting to take second choice and were weighing up our options for a battle. Our main fighting tool were all the supporters who came over from Britain with us. The amount of cheering on the start line was a real confidence booster, followed by Ruth’s ruthless recruitment of a whole stand to chant “UK UK” as we came down the rapid into the nasty boily section all the way to the finish line.


The girls charging hard infront of the chanting crowd

Winning the final was incredible, topped only by then cheering our boys into the same position. As both teams walked back up to our supporters’ camp we were mobbed by reporters, TV crews, other team’s congratulations and a surprise firm handshake from the British ambassador no less. An incredible day for both British teams who refused to be outdone by each other!!


Champions, champions!!