Ed Mc (the knife) Keever – current European Champion, surgically dissected his K1 200m heat this morning to qualify for the final tomorrow afternoon. He was the only man to post a sub 35 second time. Germany’s Max Hoff created history in the K1 1000m final by dismantling the record for the World’s fastest time by a whole two seconds…. more of this later.
Ed McKeever - Current European Champion impressed in qualification today
Back to 200m business, McKeever’s greatest threat, Piotr Siemonowski (Pol), will also race for the big medal prizes, afer dominating his semi-final.
Surprisingly, Ronald Rauhe (Ger) winning of umpteen European titles over this distance, wont be lining it up tomorrow, for the first time in what seems an eon. He was nudged into 4th place in the semi-final.
There was some solace for the German in the K2 200m class as he teamed up with Jonas Ems to make it through to this final. This new pairing which debuted in Duisburg in World Cup 3, could be the ‘wonder fix’ that keeps Rauhe stepping onto the podium. They wont find it an easy journey as they will face GBRs Liam Heath and Jon Schofield on the final start line with defence of their title at the forefront of their mind.
Jess Walker grows in stature and confidence from race to race with an outstanding win in her heat. She bags the ‘camera’ lane 5 where she loves racing.
Jess Walker - loving the womens K1 200m
She will have strong opposition in the form of Marta Walczykiewicz (Pol), the Hungarian champion – Danuta Kozak and Spain’s Teresa Portela, however, the medals are there for her to win, if she can put down another great performance. She has every chance of heading home with two in her kit bag, as she will also race in the K4 500m event in the morning session.
Rich Jefferies looks more and more comfortable in high level competition. He was 6th in his semi- final, 1.6 seconds off an A final qualification place and will race in the B. Work in progress.
The morning’s finals didnt have any GB interest however, for fans who enjoy great competition, there was plenty to talk about.
Max Hoff World Champion - new world record holder
The Hoffmeister – did what he does best – he stormed the last 200m of the MK1 1000m race to take the gold away from Aleh Yurenia (BLR). Max Hoff (Ger) is back and he now holds the record for the World’s Fastest time – 3.22.4! Statistics are good fun but Hoff will be more impressed by the nature of his win. Rene Poulsen (Den) -the man of the World Cup series in this event, was pushed back into 6th place – a reminder to all that there are no ‘givens’ in interntational racing.
The C1 1000m didnt quite live up to its overnight billing, as Atilla Vajda (Hun) and Maxim Opalev (Rus) didnt really bother Sebastian Brendl (Ger) who took gold.
The tastiest piece of action came from the C2 1000m race. Here the Russian kids – Korovashkov and Peruvkin – third at the half way point behind Roumania and Azerbaijan, moved through the field and repulsed the strong push from the Bahdanovic Bros (BLR) to win their first senior championship gold medal. The first of a trove, I imagine.
Super Sunday awaits – GB contends in 6 finals, with 6 medals easily possible. Add to that GBs own Lani Belcher will race in the WK1 5000m and with her record of winning in this event, lighting the touchpaper to GB’s end-of-regatta celebration party, it could be super Sunday seven.
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