What a day! The sun was shining, the river was flowing fast and cool and the racing was intense. I stuck to my plan and had a great run. Although I thought my heart rate could have been a little higher, I felt strong, had good lines and felt satisfied at the end which is all you can ask for. I ended up with a time of 14.06, which is 23 seconds better than my previous time trial effort, Stew was 2 seconds faster than me, Foo 4 seconds back and Rob bettered his time trial with a 14.25. What we were amazed at were our placings. Stew, me and Foo were 26th, 27th and 28th, with Rob 34th. We were outclassed on this river by the Germans, French, Czechs and Slovenes with a few other nations throwing up one or two good results. Australians haven't finished outside of the top 20 for a few years, but that's what happened today. I think its got something to do with this course: both it's legendary status amongst wildwater paddlers (everyone wants to do well here- it means something) and the fact that many nations have training camps here. Whatever, we're satisfied with our efforts. Ros managed fifth in the Women's C1 with only one practise run in a borrowed boat, she's looking forward to the sprint on Saturday/Sunday. Teams tomorrow, on paper we're the sixth best team. Hoping to defy that paper. I think the Master's race is going to be incredibly tough, with many past champions coming out of the woodwork, and some top current paddlers hitting the right age to compete. I only hope they use 5 year age brackets. Some pics today of the top women and C2s who raced after lunch. No pics of me because no one has ever taken a half decent pic of me in the Worlds :(

e