The junior K2 team of Kim Thompson and Aimee Fisher capped off a very successful World Championship in Canada today with their bronze medal in the 500m.
It was a very close race for the third spot with the Romanian and Spanish teams clearly taking first and second respectively. The Canadian and Polish teams were right up there with our girls the whole race and the third spot was anyone's guess as they crossed the finish line - a real nail-biter! This is the first time a New Zealand team has medalled at the ICF Junior World Champs ... not to mention the seven A finals and two B finals achieved by the team as a whole! Watch the race below:
Aimee also raced a stunning K1 200m to place fifth in the world just 1.478 seconds behind the Danish winner Emma Jorgensen and only split seconds off a third placing.
The U23 Mens K4 of Darryl Fitzgerald, Jasper Bats, Zac Quickenden and Jarrod Fitzgerald narrowly beat the Aussie crew of Rypp/Smith/Bain/Wood to their sixth position in a time of 2.55.280.
The other A final of the day was raced by U23 paddler Caitlyn Ryan in the K1 500m who placed eighth in a time of 1.51.724, 2.5 seconds behind the French winner Sarah Guyot.
B final racing saw young Kurtis Imrie place ninth in the 200m and Danielle Currie place third in the 500m.
The coaching team of Bianca Teague, Andras Szabo and Alan Thompson will be very happy with the team's results over this championship - the best result in the past for this championship having been Lisa Carrington's 2007 third place in a B final. If her progress is anything to go by this young team is well on their way to kayaking success!
