Lienz European Champonships – Day One

The European Championships 2012 opened yesterday in Lienz, Austria. They held a Opening Ceremony in a 14th century Castle (museum) with free drinks, speeches and a drum performance (just using 2 kayaks).

Lienz is the only place in the World where they would let kayakers into a museum  with as many free drinks as they want

Today the competition started from OC1, Junior Men, Womens and C1 Prelims.

The level is a bit different to what people are used to, so its proving quite challenging. (and it’s a pretty tough feature to begin with But the beautiful surroundings, hot sun, mountains, lakes, swimming pools make up for the harshness of the feature.

Junior Mens was dominated by the British team getting the first four places (see results below in photos). Palm Paddler Bren Orton put himself in 1st position a long way ahead with over a 1000 points, getting a first ride that would likely see him in a similar place in the mens.

Womens current European Champion Marlene from France is currently in first place followed by Claire O’Hara from GB. Palms Anne Huebner got through to the semi finals and Katya finished 11th just missing the cut.

C1 prelims were won by GB’s Adam Ramadan ahead of the current European Champions Lukas Cervinka from Czech.

So far you can definitely say that Team GB have dominating the competition, especially taking into account the results in OC1 & Squirt Boats.

Tomorrow the most exciting part coming (hopefully with a K1 men where I’ll get to compete to make the cut to the top 20.

Wish me and the others luck,

Pringle