What a fantastic weekend of racing for Tauranga paddler Michael Dawson in the Slovak Open, an ICF ranking race at Bratislava.
He qualified 2nd (from a field of over 100) - only 1.12 seconds behind Slovenian Peter Kauzer who has just won the World Cup Series '09.
With the field reducing to 20 for semis it was pretty cut throat but he produced a good run to make it through in 6th place. The top 10 go through to the finals, where Mike picked up a touch at the bottom pushing him into 9th overall. A great result!
Mike, 2009 Oceania Champion, World Champion Team Extreme Kayaking and NZL's top ranked international paddler says "I was stoked to put down some solid paddling... clean! "
The New Zealand team heads to Tacen in Slovenia for a pre world champs race next weekend as part of their build up to the World Champs in La Seu D'Urgell, Spain home of the 1992 , Barcelona Olympics early next month.
Slovak Open full results at http://www.mates.sk/
Thanks to Pub Charity for their donation to help purchase this boat
