Sixth year of Devils Extreme Race happned last weekend under Lipno dam. General sponsor Hiko, ZET-kayaks, TNP, Boatpark, Water Element and more other sponsor helped us realize this event. Media partners Kayak Session, Hydro Magazine, Maxim and more has been amazing with help. Organizers Jirka Kopecny, Mira Kodada and Jakub Nemec. Hiko Devils Extreme Race started earlier than usual, water was releasing by Wednesday. Organizing team took this chance and set everything up by Tuesday. World class kayakers shoed up and paddled this great section of whitewater. This year we had a biggest number of people coming from all around the world, there were amazing kayakers from New Zealand, Australia, Russia and probably every European country. Race itself started on Friday with qualification for all the categories: Hiko Elite, Session, Women and juniors. Course was about 500 meters long with technical slalom course made out of banners and buoys. (This qualifier put a World Champion Sam Sutton out of game for rest of the race) Half hour later we had a semifinal run for Hiko Elite and finals for women little ways down the Devils Streams section to right above Bloody hand rapid. Women title took Evina Fillova, second Zuzana Balejova and third Bety Brabcova. Juniors category was over by then. Team race went great over the whole Lipno section and victory took home team Kiwi Homos including Mike Dawson, Sam Sutton and Jamie Sutton. Friday night had a few bands e.g. Zbubaky or Basta Fidel. Saturday finals started at 10 AM. Fifteen fastest after semifinals run got to the whole Lipno section in race. Third was Michelle Ramazza, second Eric DeGuil and won Mike Dawson. At 1pm kayak cross kicked off the last race of the weekend. For safety reasons final heat went down without paddles. That was really fun to watch. After everyone got done kayaking for fun later the big party started. Many great bands like Locomotive, Jinovatka and The Chancers were keeping spectators and racers entertained all night long. After midnight DJ Enzym pulled out his music hits to keep the crowd dancing til early Sunday morning.
This years Hiko Devils Extreme Race was a next level event for all the international scene that showed up. Fourth stage of AWP World Series was very well organized, with electronic timing, 115 racers from 15 countries, professional entertainment program and great positive feel glowing around town of Loucovice all of last week.
Pictures from the race:Â http://jakubsedivy.smugmug.com/Kayaking/Devils-Extreme-Race/25190321_N6C8QN#!i=2066670005&k=24vkngQ
Pricegiving:Â http://abu.ath.cx/JKB/devils/
Results:Â Â http://www.sportsoft.cz/cs/zavod/overview/823