Nina's remarks about the eurocups 2007

Euro cups 2007

This year euro cups were in Austria-Lienz, Sweden-Trolforsarna and Spain-Galicia.

First in Lienz was the closest one, for us just 450km. I think that there were the most competitors. Draw hole was quite difficult but the best top of paddlers made there a great show especially mans final was very exciting. Peter won qualification, quarterfinal and also semifinal with very big score. Everyone thought that he will win but in knocked out final he took a 4th place so Simon and Seppi Strohmeiers (GER) and John Best (UK) had a opportunity to win. After a big fight Simon took 3th, Seppi 2nd and John 1st place. In woman category 3th place took Maria Lindgren (SWE), I took 2nd and first was Lenka Novotna (CZE).

Second euro cup was held in Sweden. This one was the best but very far, about 2500km. Beautiful nature, awesome wave and 24 hours light for training. Because of it eddy line wasn’t busy and you could be in wave how long you wanted. We had hot weather, just in Saturday during the competition got colder. The competition was great. Each paddler wanted to do best. We saw many air blunts, panams, pistol flips, helixis and many more… Mans final was very hard to judge because of many tricks what they did. The first was Peter with awesome ride, second was Mikael Lantto (FIN) and third was Tomas Kuronen (FIN). Woman category was also great. We tried to be as good as man so you can saw air blunts, felixis, donky flips or entry moves… First place took Deb Pinniger (UK), I took second and Ingrid Schlott third (GER).

Last one in Spain was for us 3200km. We drove there one week before and made many breaks during the way. First biggest break was in Lyon. We spend three 3 days and we wanted to stay more but we had to hurry up because we still had more than 1800km. After 2 days driving we arrived to Galicia. Fiera hole is situated under the dam so water level depends of it. Competition started in Friday with all qualifications. On Saturday was mans semifinal and all finals. Hole was quite difficult and you need power and energy to did tricks there. I got sick 2 days before competition so I didn’t have much enery for final and in knocked out final took 4th place, 3th was Maria Lindgren (SWE), 2nd was Emilly Wall (UK) and 1st was Lieke Servais (NL). Mans final won Peter, 2nd was James Bebbington (UK) and on 3th place was Jan Spindler (CZE). This competition was final of euro cups so we were very exciting who will be an overall winner of whole euro cups and we were so happy when we recognized that we won it!

Overall euro cups results:

K1 men:

1st Peter Csonka (SVK)

2nd John Best (UK)

3th Jan Spindler (CZE)

K1 women:

1st Nina Halasova (SVK)

2nd Maria Lindgren (SWE)

3th Lieke Servais (NL)

K1 junior woman:

1st Hanna Vackova (CZE)

K1 junior man:

1st Jiri Langer (CZE)

C1 :

1st Lukas Cervinka (CZE)\



best regrets Nina