FLU STRICKEN GRANT DETERMINED TO TAKE ON WORLD CLASS FIELD IN COFFS HARBOUR
Friday, Decmber 9: Defending champion Travis Grant will still fly the Aussie flag when a red hot international field assembles in Coffs Harbour tomorrow for the 2011 Australian Outrigger Canoe Racing Association (AOCRA) National OC1 Championship.
 |
 |
Grant is battling the flu after returning from the Cook Islands a fortnight ago where he recorded his first marathon win of the season.
Despite a disrupted preparation Grant is determined to take his place in a line up that boosts the cream of paddlers from around Australia, Hawaii and the USA.
Grant, from Currumbin on the Gold Coast, will be happy to finish on the podium but doubts whether he will be able to match the power and pace of his opponents.
 |
 |
Mooloolaba’s Todd Cohen and three-time winner, Grant’s Currumbin team mate Greg Long, as well as the legendary Outrigger Australia paddler Chris Maynard, represent the best of the local paddlers.
But Hawaiians Kai Bartlett and Karel Tresnak, and a paddler rated as the number one paddler in the world, California’s Danny Ching are expected to push the Australians to the limit over the 25 kilometre course.
Up for grabs for the Australians will be the early round of selections for Molokai next year.
Organisers expect the conditions to favour a north to south course from Woolgoolga to Coffs Harbour, starting at 1pm but a final decision will not be made until tomorrow morning.
 |
 |
It will be the start of what will be an action-packed weekend of paddling which will also include the East Coast Ocean Ski Racing Championship, part of the ICF World Ocean Ski Series, featuring noted ocean paddlers, Manly’s Dean Gardiner and Kurrawa’s Ben Allen amongst a host of paddlers.
As part of the National Junior Development Initiative, the National V1 Champions in the 16U and 19U boys and girls categories will receive sponsorship in the form of airfares to compete in the 2012 Aotorea Aito in New Zealand.
Newly elected AOCRA president Mark Forbes is excited about the level of competition from the elites to the juniors.
“Coffs Harbour always puts on a great show with Mike Mills-Thom at the helm and to have the calibre of paddlers from around Australia, Hawaii and California is very exciting,” said Forbes.
“We are equally excited with the opportunities afforded the junior paddlers and the chance to win those return airfares to New Zealand will be a great incentive for the V1 Champions.”
 |
 |
Sunday will see the 10km downwind race south between Coffs Harbour and Sawtell, again the course dependent on the wind conditions.
“It certainly has been a disruptive preparation that’s for sure but it has happened before and I have paddled OK, hopefully I can pull out a good race,” said Grant.
“The strength of the field this year suggests I will struggle to get on the podium. I think it is going to be a flat, hot paddle with only the strongest paddlers surviving the conditions.
“Todd (Cohen) has been the form paddler of the Series and when you throw in the likes of Danny (Ching), Kai (Bartlett) and Karel (Tresnak) then it makes it the best international field ever assembled in Australia.
 |
 |
“I also know Greg Long has set himself for this race and he would love nothing better than to add another title to his bow.
“He will be out to produce his best race of the season and you can never underestimate the old man of the seas, Chris Maynard – he reads the conditions better than anyone.”
The arrival of the Hawaiian and Californian contingent has again added a sense of world class to the fields, following Bartlett’s win the 2011 Steinlager Kaiwi Channel OC-1 World Championship while Ching is a former Molokai Channel winner.
EVENTS WILL COMMENCE ON FRIDAY THE 9TH DECEMBER AT 10 AM WITH CLINICS AND SUP RACE AT 3PM 12'6" BOARDS SUPPLIED ROUND ROBIN SPRINTS , SUP SURFING IN BETWEEN
SATURDAY 10TH DEC
10AM Junior races
12pm BRIEFING
1pm RACE START OC1 NATIONALS / EAST COAST OCEAN SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS 25KM DOWNWIND
6.30PM PRESENTATION DINNER PACIFIC BAY
SUNDAY
8AM Junior races
10AM 10KM DOWNWIND SUP RACE INCLUDING
OC1/OC2 NATIONAL SHORT COURSE RACE
EAST COAST OCEAN SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS 10KM DASH
1PM SUP SPRINTS DASH FOR CASH BOARDS SUPPLIED