Our Jnr and u23 Canoe Slalom team of Don Wewege (Second Skins Maxpaddle) and Brandon Orpwood (Maritzburg College) are currently in Penrith, Australia for the 2014 Jnr & u23 World Championships.
The event will be held at the 2000 Sydney Olympic games slalom channel, an amazing artificial white water center with an average flow of 12cm-3 and a drop of 5m. The channel is fully pumped by 5 huge pumps and is about 300m long.
Despite a few troubles at the airport where Brandon was unable to get his boat on the plane, the trip has gone very well. The course is a tough one, with some very unique technical features that will be game breakers come race day.
Due to the lack of such world class facilities here in South Africa, both Brandon and Don have been hard at work to try and get as much time on the water in. They are both part of the ICF Talent Identification program and are provided with some of the worlds’ best coaches while in Australia to help them achieve high results.
Race day will be on the 23rd and 24th of April (Wednesday and Thursday!). Both Brandon (Jnr) and Don (u23) will race on the 23rd in the K1 class and Don will race in the C1 class of Thursday. Should they qualify through to the semi’s, they will race on Friday the 25th. Don will be racing at around 3 to 5 am South African Time and Brandon will race between 7 and 9 am.
There will be a live feed on www.123result.com during the whole competition. Be sure to check our athletes out!