Finally, the Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championships have taken place in the Oetz Valley in Austria during the last four days. Unlike last year, when the race had to be cancelled due to high water, the waterlevel was all right this time and pretty constant as well.
The starterfield consisted of around 130 paddlers (5 women) from around the world, both incredible whitewater specialists and world class slalom paddlers. The programm around the event was as amazing as last year – lots of good food, video night, photo contests…
After some really exciting races, it was Thilo Schmitt from Germany who took home the title in the end, followed by Kiwi Sam Sutton and Italy’s Michelle Ramazza. I was able to qualify for the final (best 25) and eventually came 11th, so I unfortunately closely missed my goal to be under the top 10 paddlers. A couple of smaller mistakes in both final runs summed up to this result.
For more information on this really well organized event visit www.adidas-sickline.com. Photos, result lists, daily reports and a little video about the race are available there.
Here are a couple of pictures of myself racing:
