Kiwi's lining up for qualification were Olympian Luuka Jones, NZ number 1 Aaron Osborne and Mike Dawson.  "It was a awesome day here, the sun was baking and like normal I turn red rather than brown. Fluid intake was high, like the amount of spectators. They have really done an awesome job at organising such a wicked event! There were 2 massive TV screens, and a handful of smaller screens scattered through the event. Good food, good athletes, good river = good times." Reported Osborne.

In the mens slalom the Kiwi's didn't perform to their best as Osborne explains. "After a good week's build up and paddling really well both Mike Dawson and I missed the semi finals cut off. Mike 46th, me a very disappointing 53rd." commented Osborne "I was rather nervous in my first run and had a shocker breaking out above upstream 7 and dropping low in a few eddys. The rest of the run was ok but small errors make big mistakes here. My second run was just kaka."

In the women's it was all good news with Jones powering through the course to make the next round.  "Luuka Jones had a good day qualifying for the semis and will get to race tomorrow." Commented Osborne after watching her race.  After her run Jones said "I can't believe it, this has never happened to me."

The increased level of competition and a change to the rule book has lifted the bar for the Kiwi paddlers as Osborne explains "With 10secs between 1st and 50th and only 3secs separating the top 20, the new rule changes have definitely made it hard to make the cut (combined runs to best run counts). They have also gone from top 40 to top 20 making the mens rather competitive."

"They have set a harder and more technical course for the finals. I wish they would set courses like these for heats too as it might spread the field."

Luuka Jones will race her semi tomorrow.