Euro Cup – Wildalpen

5 May 2014

The Euro Cup in Austria at Wildalpen is one of the most popular in the series – and now I can see why! The course is technically very good, night slalom is very attractive, the downriver is on the crystal clear river of Salza through dense, magical forests. Added to that the always available and friendly organizers with Christian Hollinger at the forefront, the hotel Bergkristall Wildalpen for their internet and I must personally thank the Denmark team for transporting me to Vienna!

Eleven nations took part in this competition, twelve teams in the Open Women’s category, 32 in the Open Men’s category, four in the U23 men’s category. This event was also the national qualification for Austria and for some other countries. The only female U23 team was from Italy and so had to be part of the Open Women’s category.

Sprint – on Friday most of the teams used the opportunity to train and better familiarize themselves with the river. Saturday morning started with the Sprint. The Brazilian team “Alaya Competitions 1” showed absolute dominance in all disciplines – as World Champions in R6, this is not surprising.

“Copenhagen Watersport” DEN team took 4th place in the Sprint (but were the second Euro team) which is a great result for the boys. With the “GIMPEX 2” SLO taking silver and defending the honour of Europe, with Brazil “Alaya 1 & 2” taking 1st and 3rd respectively.

In the women’s section the biggest surprise was the Hungarian “Rafting Ladies” who won first place, with the Master’s women’s team from NED “Ladies Liquide” in second and “Waterproof 2” NED in third place.

H2H – In this discipline, the experienced German team of “KSA-RTA 1” found themselves in second in a Brasil sandwich with “Alaya 1” winning and “Alaya 2” coming third by knocking “Gimpex 2” into fourth.

NED “Fl’eau” women’s team seemed to have finally warmed up and won first place with BEL “Waterproof 2” in second and third “Liquid Ladies” NED.

Slalom – worthy of attention was the excellent third place of NED “VET 1” who had no penalties in both runs, a surprise and great success. GER “KSA-RTA 1” took second place and “Alaya 1” first, no surprises there!

“Fl’eau” NED took the top spot with by far the best run and only a 5 point penalty in the first run. “Waterproof 2” BEL took second, squeezed between two Dutch teams. The third were NED “Liquide Ladies”.

Party – this discipline all participants were winners and it lasted until the late hours. A great time with the highest grades passed and with the celebration of the Dutch King’s Day.

Downriver – began quite early, if you count what time the “Party” discipline finished! It was a Le Mans starts in groups, where the team sat in their raft in the water while one member stood back behind the start line on shore and ran to jump in their raft when the judge’s whistle blew. For the spectators this certainly brought a lot of fun at the start of the discipline, and chaos to some competitors. Second place in this discipline for “GIMPEX 2” SLO secured them a third place overall, and a third in the DR secured “KSA-RTA 1” GER second overall. “Alaya 1” won the first place to ensure absolute 1000 points.

The women were given more time to rest before the Downriver and “arrange their make-up”, as the organizer quipped. The start for them was the same – a group with one flier, and in this “Waterproof 1” were most resourceful and won this discipline. Second placed were “Fl’eau” which secured them first place overall, third were “Ladies Liquide” which secured them third in the overall standings. And although only fifth in the Downriver “Waterproof 2 “ managed to finish third in the overall standings with only five points above their colleagues “Waterproof 1 “.

In the U23 division – absolute victory was taken by the AUT “Roughters Wildalpen” with 1000 points. Second place in all the disciplines and overall were “Italy U23”, and third place was “Latvia U23” who pipped out “Slovak Junior Rafters U23” into fourth.

Congratulations to all the winners and all the participants and organizers for a great event. See you next year from 17 – 19 April 2015^th!

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