DAY 1 — Friday July 31 — AFTERNOON REPORT

500M HEATS

3:00 — Coach Barlow and C2 of Ben Hefner and Ian Ross arrive and immediately head ovr to Boat Control to be sure boat is still making weight – ALL IS GOOD.

3:30 — MK2 Luke Potts and Cedric Bond arrive and head to the water 15 minutes later

4:00 Coach Anderson arrives with the rest of our team – many have slept BUT all have eaten since the races this morning

NOTE: the food at our hotel has been very good, but all teams feel that the portions have been limited – the delegations appeal for extra quantities – Org Com says this will imp[rove tonight

5:00 — MK2 heads back to the water for their 500m heat

NOTE: the wind has dropped off a bit BUT remains a steady tailwind

WK2 has returned from their pre race paddle

WK4 will also go to the water for a pre race paddle – long before their scheduled 7:30 start

NOTE: most teams in the sport are dong this – a pre race paddle to check out wind, boat and to relax the nerves of all involved – this is followed by the normal on water warm up just prior to the start time.

5:30 — MC2 – 5^th of 7 in a 2:04.03 – Lane # 8 – wash from lane #7 from the Czech Republic, who finished second was a difficulty that forced major adjustments to an otherwise solid first 250m – winning time of 1:43.71 – “good performance for a young C2” both have another year in Junior – Coach form Sweden remarked that it was good to see USA competitive in the canoe events.

Both Ian and Ben were very happy with their performance and look forward to Sunday’s semi finals.

6:00 — MK2 – must finish in the top 6 or have one of the 3 fastest times outside the top 24 – first 6 in each of the 4 heats advance plus the next 3 fastest times – ready for this – their time of 1:39.214 was second fastest – 3^rd fastest was 1:39.514 and eliminated was 1:39.844. MK2 advances to the semi final

6:30 WK2 — finish 6^th with a time of 1:56.52 – this placement will advance the WK2 of Chelsea Smith and Katy Hill to the 500m semi final – the girls K2 is ranked 17^th out of 20 – are targeting the B final — sub 1:50 will be needed for the A final

MK4 heads to the water – for heat #2 and lane 9

NOTE: events are seeded based on your nation’s performance in the previous Junior World Championships

Our team of Jared McArthur / Nick Hanoian / Chris Miller and Zach Robertson finish 9^th and are eliminated – time of 1:34.062 – winning time of 1:24.413 – our MK4 is ranked 27^th of 27 – this is a very disappointing result for all involved – the 4 boys gave everything they had and just admit that the field is exceptionally fast.

NOTE: I wish to thank the crew for all of their efforts over the past 6 weeks – they gave everything they had all of the time – it was a pleasure for every coach who worked with them.

7:30 — WK4 – finishes 5^th of 6 in a time of 1:44.264 and is ranked 14^th of 19 and a solid shot of being in the B final and ranking in the top 12 in the World

It has been a very good first day – all crews have advanced to the semi finals except the MK4. A team meeting has just concluded and the four men are handling their setback as I would expect of this group. They are now in a very supportive role of their team mates who are advancing and will assist with video and stroke rate recording for the remaining races.

Mac Hickox

National Development Director

USA Canoe Kayak

Team Leader Moscow Junior World Championships Team