Training camps and races

Hey all, after recovering from nasty Giardia encountered in Spain have recently had 3 training weekends and one race. Brady's, Leven, Mersey for the training camps, and Huon race 2. Lots of rain prior to the Leven weekend meant a nice level of 1.5m on the saturday and 1 m on the sunday. We've all been up on the Mersey these last few days climbing into our frost-covered boats, hello winter!

Here's a pic from the Huon race 2. A lead group including Dan went off the front early, with myself and Stew in the 2nd group eventually losing 1min 15sec over 11.5 km and taking part in a nice long sprint for 4th place. Results here: http://www.derwent.canoe.org.au/default.asp?Page=16947

Ben back from Spain and into World Cup training

Hi all, I'm back from Europe, where I was 1 week in Valencia, Spain and 2 weeks in Aberdeen, Scotland for work, then nearly 3 weeks in Sort, Spain for kayaking. I trained and raced on the Noguera Pallaresa river, which will be the site of the World Championships next year. My result was only 21st, however I think I learnt many things to help me go better next year. Check it all out here: www.sort2010.org

Training since returning has been very good with a lot of training camps coming up for the World Cup.

See you soon! Ben.

Pics from Scotland

Royal Mile in Edinburgh

Royal Mile in Edinburgh

From the top of Edinburgh castle

From the top of Edinburgh castle

Edinburgh castle

Kings College at Aberdeen University

The old part of Aberdeen University, est. 1495

Archways at Aberdeen University

Ben in Spain

Hi all,

I've had some very good training since our nationals finished in mid-January, which should set me up for a good year. The weather in Hobart through Jan and Feb was really good, and there was even some whitewater around. Derwent, Huon, Upper Mersey, Brady's Lake and Cataract Gorge were all going at some point. Gerhard Schmid from AUT was down training with us all of February, which was great. Highlight of Feb was no doubt a 9 hr paddle in sea kayaks around Tasman Peninsula. There was also some racing to be had with Browns every 2 weeks http://www.derwent.canoe.org.au/ and just before I left an interesting summer down-wind race http://www.southernpaddlers.com/ which was extremely good fun!

Just got into Spain yesterday. In Valencia for the next week, Scotland for 2 weeks after that, then back to Spain to train and race at Sort, site of World Championships 2010. The race this year is an international ranking race and the "pre-world" championships. Race website here: http://www.kayaksort.cat/

Feeling good after flight, weather here is perfect low 20 degrees and sunny. Scotland might be a bit different! My hotel here is very close to the ocean. Off to check it all out today.

More news soon, cheers, Ben.

A sample of some of the fantastic images of the recent Australian Wild Water Team selction trials provided by Sportscene Photography & Video. Have a look at more images by Sportscene here: http://sportscene.tv/, and check out their feauture on RDR here: http://sportscene.tv/news_details.php?id=112

Stewart Bennett - Brady's White Water Course

Dan Hall - Brady's White Water Course

Ben Maynard - Brady's White Water Course

Rapid Descent Racing Athletes Selected in 2009 Australian Kayak Team

Following successful performances at the recent Australian Wild Water Team selection trials and Australian Wild Water Championships, Ben Maynard, Dan Hall and Stewart Bennett have been selected to represent Australia at the 2009 Wild Water World Cup, to be held in October and November. Tasmania is hosting this year's 6 race world cup competion providing a significant home river advantage to the RDR athletes. Ben, Dan and Stew are part of the 6 member mens K1 team to be officially announced later this week.

Pictures of the boys in action to be posted shortly

Selection races in the media

See results and summary articles on the Canoe Tas website here: http://www.tas.canoe.org.au/

From The Examiner (click to enlarge)

From The Mercury (click to enlarge)

From The Advocate (click to enlarge)

Update December 2008

From The Mercury, Thursday 11 Oct (click to enlarge)

From The Advocate, Thursday 11 Oct (click to enlarge)

From The Advocate, Tuesday 16 Oct (click to enlarge)

Update November 2008

From The Mercury, October (click to enlarge)

From The Advocate, October (click to enlarge)

Immersion Research gear - get it from Kayak4Play!

From The Advocate, July (click to enlarge)

Rapid Descent Racing on the World Stage

Stew leading the Australian Team in the World Championship Athletes Parade

The World Championship crowd, Ivrea, Italy

Ben, World Championship Sprint Course, Ivrea, Italy

Dan charging the final rapid, World Cup Final, Lofer, Austria

Stew in training, Mouta River, Switzerland

Training for the Rapid Sprint Team Event, Ivrea, Italy

Ben and Stew after finishing 16th and 14th respectively in the World Cup, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

The leader board during the World Cup Final; Stew 1st, Dan 2nd, Ben 3rd

The RDR boys after the World Cup Final, Lofer, Austria after a record Australian team result

RDR Shines on the World Stage

Rapid Descent Racing Athletes Dan Hall, Ben Maynard and Stewart Bennett completed their European tour with the Australian Wild Water Kayak team on a high at the Wild Water World Cup Final in Lofer, Austria, last weekend. Together, Ben, Dan and Stew achieved possibly Australia's best set of overall results from a world wild water competition – all placing within the top 12 on the back of a very successful Wild Water World Championship and World Cup campaign.

Ben Maynard completed his best year of international racing with a personal best 12th place in the World Cup Classic Final, as well a personal best 21st place in the World Cup Rapid Sprint Final. Ben finished with an overall World Cup Ranking of 12th.

Dan Hall finished 4th in the World Cup Rapid Sprint Final in a close race and finished 11th in the World Cup Classic Final the next day, proving his outstanding ability as an all-round competitor.

Stewart Bennett continued his incredible rise through the World field, placing a remarkable 9th in the World Cup Classic Final. To acieve a top ten finish in his first year of international senior competition is an exceptional achievement and perhaps an exciting glimpse of performances to come.

The World Cup Final in Austria concluded and extensive and very successful tour of Europe for the RDR boys which all began with the World Championships in Ivrea, Italy in early June. This was followed by World Cup events 1 & 2 in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic and the World Cup finale in Lofer Austria. During the 4 weeks of competition, every World Championship and World Cup race yielded personal best results on the world stage for both Ben and Stew while Dan added to his impressive international record with two top 12 placings in the World Cup final.Rapid Decent Racing performances in this years World Championships and World Cup place the boys in a strong position to go even better when racing on their home rivers at the 2009 Hydro Tasmania Wild Water World Cup scheduled for October next year!

A Summary of the best results from the 2008 World Championships and World Cup Follows:

• 4th. World Cup 3 Rapid Sprint Final, Lofer, Austria – Dan Hall
• 5th. World Championships Classic Teams Race, Ivrea, Italy (Mathew French, Ben Maynard, Stewart Bennett)
• 8th. World Championships Rapid Sprint Teams Race, Ivrea, Italy (Dan Hall, Ben Maynard, Stewart Bennett)
• 9th. World Cup 4 Classic Final, Lofer Austria – Stewart Bennett
• 11th. World Cup 4 Classic Final, Lofer Austria – Dan Hall
• 12th. World Cup 4 Classic Final, Lofer Austria – Ben Maynard
• 14th. World Cup 2 Classic, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic – Stewart Bennett
• 16th. World Cup 2 Classic, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic – Ben Maynard
• 21st. World Championships Classic, Ivrea, Italy – Stewart Bennett
• 21st. World Cup 3 Rapid Sprint Final, Lofer, Austria – Ben Maynard

Wildwater World Cup 2009 in Tasmania - it's official

Just before RDR members left Tasmania to travel to Europe, Tasmania's bid to host the 2009 Wildwater World Cup was officially ratified by the InternationalCanoeing Federation. This is in line with the ICF's policy to hold Wildwater World Cups outside of Europe every 4-5 years (1999 = New Zealand, 2003 = USA).

This is a great result for the sport of Wildwater in Australia! Furthermore, it's recognition of Tasmania as a World-class venue for Wildwater courses,as well as further recognition of Canoe Tasmania's capacity to bid for, organise and run these sort of events (Canoe Tasmania successfully ran a slalom World Cup in Launceston's Cataract Gorge during the early 1990's).

There will be 3 classic (long) and 3 sprint (short) races held during the competition in 2009. At the moment, 4 venues are planned to host the racing,scheduled for October/November. All 4 venues are dam controlled by Hydro Tasmania, who will make the event possible through water releases, and be the naming rights sponsor. The timing of Oct/Nov should maximise water resources, coming after the Tasmanian winter and early spring rains.

World Cup '09 will have flow-on benefits throughout the Australian and Tasmanian Wildwater community - publicity (increased profile of the sport), participation, development, equipment, exposure to international athletes, heightened chances of Australian paddlers doing well on their home courses......it's a great opportunity! More broadly, the event will attract more than 200 foreign visitors to the State so that they can "discover Tasmania".

A contingent from Tasmania will be present at the 2008 World Championships in Ivrea, Italy to publicise the event and provide more information. For now, the event has a website:

http://www.wildwatertasmania.canoe.org.au/

See also:

http://www.canoe.org.au/default.asp?Page=14693
http://www.canoe.org.au/default.asp?Page=14710

Above is some print publicity, featuring RDR athletes, arising from the media launch of the 2009 World Cup a few weeks ago. On television, both ABC and Southern Cross News covered the launch, and ABC also interviewed John Borojevic (Chair of Canoe Tasmania) on radio about the upcoming event.

RDR 2008 Update

As we get ready to leave for Europe for World Championships and World Cups , here's what we have been up to in the last few months............it's been busy on and off the water! To everyone who has supported us, a big thank-you, and we'll see you all soon. Let the 2008 campaign begin!

Brady's Lake training camp write-up on the AC site:

http://www.canoe.org.au/default.asp?Page=14608

Summer Survival multisport:

http://www.endorfun.com.au/

Cradle To Coast multisport:

http://www.tasultra.org/cradle/cradle_index.htm

DCC's Kayak Of The Derwent, Browns Race Series and Huon Series:

http://www.derwent.canoe.org.au/

Tasmanian Life short piece, May/June edition

Training on the Derwent River near New Norfolk, January

Ben with brother Andrew after the Summer Survival multisport, February

RDR quiz night and fundraiser, February

RDR quiz night and fundraiser, February

Stewart with some happy punters at the RDR quiz night

RDR quiz night and fundraiser, February

Article in The Mercury recently

Teva Lea Xtreme article in the "Green" issue of Cumec Magazine by RDR's Stewart Bennett

RDR's Dan and Ben win Australian Canoeing Award

The Australian Men's K1 Wildwater Team (Dan Hall, Ben Maynard, Mathew French) have been honoured for their historic 5th place finish at the 2006 World Championships in the Czech Republic.

They have received an Australian Canoeing Award for 2006 Team Of The Year at the recent AC Awards night. Awards were conferred on the basis of results gained during each of the last 2 years.

The field of teams at the 2006 Wildwater World Championships was the largest ever, with 20 nations being represented. Australian team members are hoping to achieve even better results at the bi-annual Championships held in 2008. This competition will be held at Ivrea, Italy, where RDR athlete Dan Hall won Australia's first silver medal in a World Cup race earlier this year.

RDR's coach, Andrea McQuitty, won the Coach Of The Year Award for her siginifant role in the 2006 result, as well as her recent and past record of coaching excellence.

For details of all AC Award recipients, click the link below:

http://www.canoe.org.au/default.asp?Page=13793

Results from final AUS selection races

http://www.canoe.org.au/default.asp?Page=13801

RDR members make 2008 Australian team

Quick post to say that automatic selections for the 2008 Australian Wildwater Team are as follows:

Classic - Mathew French, Dan Hall, Ben Maynard, Stewart Bennett

Sprint* - Dan Hall, Ben Maynard, Mathew French
*There may be an extra inclusion in the Sprint team (dependent on selector's discretion)

Results from selection races 3 and 4:

Sprint 2 (combined times for 2 runs)
1. Dan Hall 75.68 secs
2. Ben Maynard 78.77 secs (4.08%)
3. Mathew French 80.96 secs (6.98%)
4. Tom Bedford 84.47 secs (11.61%)
5. Stewart Bennett 84.53 secs (11.69%)

Classic 2
1. Mathew French 11mins 04secs
2. Dan Hall 11mins 06secs
3. Ben Maynard 11mins 07secs
4. Stewart Bennett 11mins 12secs

Teams
1. Dan Hall, Ben Maynard, Stewart Bennett 11mins 22secs

So we're off to Europe next year!! Pictures to come soon.......

Stewart in CUMEC magazine

Avon Descent article featuring RDR's Stewart Bennett. There's a link on the sidebar of this page to CUMEC magazine, so check it out.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

More Teva Lea Race newspaper exposure

Two full-page spreads in The Advocate and The Examiner recently, as well as an article featuring Ben and Dan in The Mercury.

From The Mercury, Saturday 13 October

Click to enlarge

From The Advocate, Wednesday 10 October
Click to enlarge

From The Examiner, Wednesday 10 October
Click to enlarge

Stewart and Ben in The Huon Valley News

From The Huon Valley News, Wednesday 26 September
Click to enlarge

Teva Lea Xtreme article in The Mercury

From The Mercury, Thursday 20 September
Click to enlarge
Also available on The Mercury website here.

Teva Lea Xtreme article in The Advocate

From The Advocate, Tuesday 18 September

Click to enlarge

Teva Lea Xtreme article in The Examiner

From The Examiner, Saturday 15 September
Click to enlarge

Dan's World Cup silver medal performance in the TIS Newsletter

Click to enlarge

Ben's Ben Lomond Descent win in The Bugle

Great behind-the-scenes BLD article by journalist Wes Young in Launceston's new weekly newspaper The Bugle

From The Bugle, Thursday 16 August (click to enlarge)

New Megaburn website and RDR page, plus Megaburn and the Avon Descent

Our nutrition sponsors Megaburn have been working on a new site during the last few weeks, check it all out through their homepage here.

Featured on the site is a page dedicated to Rapid Descent Racing, click here.

Megaburn products have been a big part of our nutrition and hydration during the recent few months, and there's no better example than Stewart's preparation and participation in the recent Avon Descent, where he gained 3rd place. Check out how he used Megaburn in the World's greatest whitewater race below:

Megaburn and the Avon Descent - by Stewart Bennett
I use a selection of quality nutritional products from MEGABURN to optimise my performance and well being while training and racing for wild water kayaking.

Training for the 140km Avon Descent, hailed as "the World's greatest white water race" required serious consideration towards my diet and sports nutrition to ensure I had the energy to perform at my best during the 9 1/2 hour event, but also to ensure my recovery was optimised during my training, before the race and after competition. I kept hydrated using AMMO, contained in two hydration bladders from which I constantly sipped throughout both days of competition. Prior to the race I was eating Euphoria and Blitz energy bars. These are great, easy to digest and provide a big, sustained energy boost.
To enhance my recovery I ate BREVA protein bars and made MEGASOY protein isolate shakes to increase my muscle repair and recovery. MEGASOY also goes great on my 8 weetbix each morning to give a little extra kick start to my day.

Stewart featured front page of The West Australian (click to enlarge)
A brief write-up on Stewart's Avon results also appeared in The Mercury, Friday 17th August

Ben overcomes injury to post two multisport wins

From The Examiner, Monday 6th August (click to enlarge)

Above - Ben Lomond Descent kayak leg

Ben and his brother Andrew at the finish of the kayak leg

Stewart 3rd in the Avon Descent!!

Fantastic effort by Stewart!!

Here's a great picture taken by Aussies in Action of Stewart blasting down the Emu Falls section during day 2 of the Avon Descent, on his way to 3rd place overall.

There are more pictures of Stewart here on the Aussies in Action website.

Full results are now up on the official Avon Descent website.

This from Stewart:

Hi All,

Just briefly, I competed in the 2007 Avon Descent this weekend. The Avon River was flowing high after considerable rain over the past 15 days and the weather on the two days of the race was sunny and clear. Perfect conditions for the 700+ field of competitors this year. Thousands of spectators lined the 133 km of river bank between the Town of Northam for the Start and the city of Bayswater at the finish line.

The Avon Descent is 133km long split between two days of racing. I finished the day yesterday in 3rd position and maintained this position today finishing 3rd in the Mens Kayak class.

The South African Marathon Champion won this years Mens Kayak class, and this is his 3rd Avon Descent victory.

Thank-you for your support, it is very much appreciated. I hope to speak to you all individually soon.

Regards,

Stewart Bennett

2007 Avon Descent articles (video footage also available through some of these links):

Perth Now article 1

The West article 1

The West article 2

The West article 3

Count-down to Avon Descent for Stewart

(click to enlarge)

It's on! Stewart has been over in WA for the last 2 weeks preparing for this years Avon Descent. Here's an article on his build-up in The Mercury, Saturday 4th August.

Dan's World Cup silver medal performance in The Mercury

Here's an article on Dan's recent achievements in The Mercury, Wednesday 27th June (click to enlarge).

Follow this link to read the online version of the article on The Mercury's website.

Silver medal for Dan at World Cup 5!!!

Rapid Descent Racing's Dan Hall has re-written his own record books and taken the silver medal in World Cup 5 (sprint) at Irvea, Italy!!

This is Australia's first Wildwater medal at senior level, only Australia's second medal in total after Andrew Tribe won Junior gold many years ago.

The Irvea course claimed some big names, with Mruzek, Marek, Slepica (CZE), Andrea (ITA) and Stiefenhoffer (GER) all well down the list compared to their results from earlier sprint World Cups this season.

Dan has been training and competing at the top level on a shoe-string budget every year since his first European campaign in 2003. Wildwater kayaking has not received national funding since 2004. Dan was elated that his commitment and hard work has yielded such a big result:

"Wahoooooo!!!!!! Silver medal at World Cup race 5!!!! Wahoooooo!!!!!! I'm so stoked! It was the toughest course I have raced on in my Wildwater kayak. The course was like Brady's on steroids but harder! I had 2 crackers and came from 4th to 2nd!!! I was only .7 of a sec off winning. One more race tomorrow and then back to Scotland."

News just in - Dan 11th in World Cup 6 (classic). A solid classic from Dan. From the six World Cup races, Dan has results of 2nd, 8th, 10th, 11th, 14th, and 15th. The best four of these count for overall World Cup ranking, so Dan should have a good chance of improving on his World Cup ranking of 7th in 2006. Rankings will be available soon on the ICF Wildwater site http://www.wwcommittee.com/

See some awesome video footage of the sprint race courtesy of the CUS Milano Wildwater Team:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vEbMQPQwEvo

Sprint Results: http://www.ivrea2008.it/doc/sprint.pdf

Classic Results: http://www.ivrea2008.it/doc/classic.pdf

Other links - Official race site: http://www.ivrea2008.it/

One of the USA C1's, Tom Weir, has been keeping an online journal during the Wildwater World Cup series. Here's his journal http://tomwier.livejournal.com/

Here's an extract from Tom's journal:

"The classic course at Ivrea is flat. It takes me around 11 minutes to get from the start to the bridge where the whitewater starts, and my deck stays dry the entire time. Then, there are a few waves and huge boils under a bridge in town, and you drop into the sprint course.

The sprint course is as follows:

Sprint across a flat but boily pool. Go over a slide into a small hole, and run the waves into a ledge drop. Run the drop on the left of the hole.

Go across a short flat, then run 5 waves, and then run 6 ledges in a row. They range in height from 3 to 5 feet, and the holes\ waves at the bottom are very powerful and pushy.

Many people are swimming...many are eddying out. There are a few who have been seriously injured on the concrete ledges as they flip and pinball from side to side. It is a wild rapid. "

Check out more video footage at http://c2momotdidier.canalblog.com/

This is a blog maintained by one of the French C2 crews.

RDR Sponsorship Prospectus

Designed and printed by RICOH, RDR's sponsorship prospectus is available below as images (click to enlarge), and on request to rapiddescentracing@hotmail.com as a .pdf or glossy hard copy. Our thanks to Rebecca Kurczok (graphic design), Judith Andrews, and the team at RICOH Business Centre Hobart for making this possible.