| 2005 Event
Write-up Saturday 12th
of February: Time Trial on the Wairoa River from the put-in below McLaren
Falls to just above The Waterfall rapid. Fastest time by last year's champion Mike Dawson
from Tauranga who did this section in 5 min 19 sec. In the Women's class, Nikki Kelly won
the time trial in 5 min 46 sec.
71 Men and 12 Women entered the race. Only the top 64 Men after the time trial made
the cut to compete in Sunday's Head-to-Head Races down The Waterfall and Rollercoaster
Rapids. The 7 losers received a bottle of tequila (courtesy of NZ
Adventure Magazine) at the Bliss-Stick Party on
Saturday night to consolate for lost racing time. Everybody else enjoyed themselves too: Lion Breweries supported the event very, very generously by
supplying vast amounts of Lion Pils, a great beer to keep the
party going. DJ Hayden played the tunes till about midnight and the portable spa (which
took up to 14 people at a time) had still some people sitting in it at dawn!
Sunday 15th of February: With new
rules in effect this year (no Right Line) and closed Chicken Chute from the Quarter (Men)
and Semi (Women) Finals onwards races in both classes got extremely tight. In the Men's
Class three times winner Donald Johnstone and last year's champion Mike Dawson dropped out
in the 3rd round. Mikey Abbott and John Snook had a similar fate. Biggest upset probably
was Anton Cummings wiping out Ben Brown in the 1st round. Toby Robertson made it into the
Semi-Finals for the second year in a row but Bernd Sommer (Okere Falls) proved to be too
strong and moved into the Final instead. The second Semi-Final was between
employer/employee Kenny Mutton/Johann Roozenburg (rumour had it that Kenny offered Johann
a pay rise if he would let him win!). Johann beat Kenny with brilliant stall-out tactics
and lots of speed and finally walked up the rapid for the 5th time this day to meet Bernd
Sommer in the Final.
  
Johann was leading the final race for most of the way. Only at the entry to
Rollercoaster Bernd Sommer came very close and could have kicked Johann off line, but
being cool, calm and calculating, Johann slowed down right in fromt of Bernd which kicked
him off line and gave Johann the extra lead he needed to carry home the gold. Johann
Roozenburg new champion, taking home $ 1000 prize money donated by TEVA.
The Women's race was equally exciting and action packed. With two top competitors
from Australia (Tania Faux and Georgia Lepastrier) in the field and Nikki Kelly and
Heather Jull (2nd last year) rated as favourites, the outcome of the races was all open.
Nikki Kelly dropped out against newcomer Louise Urwin. Louise showed great
consistency and moved on from round to round until she found herself in the Final. Heather
Jull came true to her favourite status and had mostly clean runs against all her
competitors. Heather dominated the final against Louise even though Louise stayed close at
all times waiting to cash in on a mistake by her opponent. Heather Jull won the Women's
title and received $ 500 prize money donated by TEVA. The winners of the Head-to-Heads
(as well as the fastest paddlers in Men's and Women's of day one) also received thermal
tops from sponsor Fourth Element. The Bliss-Stick
kayak was won by Tim Nel from South Africa and a large amount of spot prizes (Palm PFDs and paddle jackets, Bomber Gear kayaking
accessories) was donated by Topline Agencies and www.paddle-power.com. NZ
Adventure Magazine is going to publish up to 8 pages of race report and photos in the
April 2005 issue and donated two 1-year magazine subscriptions as well as the "Adventure Magazine Carnage Award" which this year went
to Jarred Meehan for dislocating his shoulder. Thanks also to Red
Bull for supplying all racers and spectators with the stuff that gives you wings,
they definitely needed it during a hard day of racing and walking back up to the start
line over house size boulders.
To see the complete list of results, click here.
Finalists from left to right: Johann Roozenburg, Bernd
Sommer, Louise Urwin, Heather Jull
All photos on this page by NZ Adventure
Magazine
2003 Event Story on Playak.com |
