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A report plus complete results from the TEVA Extreme Outdoor Games 2007 in Val Sesia, Italy.

TEVA Extreme Outdoor Games 2007, Val Sesia Italy

The TEVA Extreme Outdoor games always have been one of the top kayak events every year over the last 6 years, but this year's event had grown much bigger than expected, especially in the other sports like mountain running, downhill biking, bouldering and some more demonstration events.

Also there was a lot more interest from the press to cover the event. Beside a very significant increase in local news media on site, a team from Gillette World Sports and Sky TV Italy covered the event for international tv distribution.

Unfortunately I was heavily involved in the execution of the kayak races, so I did not have the time to witness all the other great events. Therefore I can only report on what happened on the river, which was one of the most exciting kayak races I have seen in the last years.

60 kayakers from 15 countries entered this year's kayak races, which took off on friday with the team and individual downriver race on the Egua river. With a slightly higher water level than last year and a much more competitive field of paddlers, the racing times were much faster than in 2006. 

Like last year, team Italy 1 (Francesco Salvato, Michelle Ramazza, Enrice Lazzarotto) took first again, followed by Germany 1 (Jacobus Stenglein, Benjamin Herrbrügger, Thilo Schmitt), and Team USA (Pat Keller, John Grace, Austin Rathmann) in third place.

The first place in the individual downriver race went to Italian paddler Michelle Ramazza, 5 seconds ahead of Pat Keller from USA and in third place Hannes Brandstaetter from Austria.

In the women's division we saw a very tight race on the lower section of the men's race course with Katerina Migdavoa (CZ) taking first, closely followed by Anna Jankowfsky (Ger) and Christie Glissmeyer (USA).

On Saturday we had low water levels again like last year, so that both events - slalom and sprint - had to be held again on the Sorba instead on the Gronda river.

In the morning there was a very exciting slalom race with some major upsets due to disqualifications, like the one of last years winner, Michelle Ramazza who missed a gate. Pat Keller won ahead of Jacobus Stenglein (Ger) and third place went to Andrej Bijuklic from Slovenia.

The women's class was taken by Lilli Winter (Ger), second went to Rosie Cripps (UK) and on third place Christie Glissmeyer.

The sprint in the afternoon was won by Jacobus Stenglein just half a second in front of Michelle Ramazza and 1.2 seconds faster than Hannes Brandstaetter, a very very close result !

Saturday's dinner and party saw a lot of paddlers staying up till the break of dawn celebrating another great TEVA Extreme Outdoor Games in the beautiful Valle Sesia in Italy and not caring much about their about next day's event, the kayak cross.

Tied for first going into Sunday's event was Pat Keller and Jacobus Stenglein. Barely making the cut of the best 32 due to his disqualification in slalom and missing out on precious points, Michelle Ramazza had to win the kayak cross to make it back into the top 3 overall. The Italian Team TEVA paddler was on a solid second place in his first heat, when he managed to park his kayak on a shallow rock shelf only 2 meters away from the finish, just to get passed by a happy Simon Hirter from switzerland who took second and advanced into the next round instead of Michelle!

Pat Keller got bumped out of the kayak cross in the semi finals and with a 7th place in the little final, what meant that he was settled for 3rd place overall. Now it was up to Jacobus Stenglein and Hannes Brandstaetter to fight for the first and second place in the overall standing and the big price money. Jacobus took no chances and won all his heats including the semi finals always with a solid lead, only to get beaten by Hannes Brandstaetter and Honza Lasko (CZ) in the final heat of the kayak cross. But after dropping everyone's lowest score out of 4 races, the third place in the final event turned out to be enough points for Jacobus to win the overall title and 1000 Euros of price money. Hannes Brandstaetter took second and Pat Keller third place overall.

Christie Glissmeyer secured an overall first place and 500 Euros price money with her first place in the kayak cross. Katerina Migdavoa just barely missed the women's kayak cross final but after dropping the lowest score it turned out that she earned enough points to win the overall 2nd place, closely followed by Anna Jankowfsky (Ger) on the third place, who got second on Sunday's kayak cross.

A million thanks to all competitors, volunteers, spectators, Francesco and Carla Salvato and most of all, Simone Ponziani from TEVA Italy to make this year's exciting event happen again.

See you next year back in bella Italia.
Cheers,
Arnd

Photos: Raphael Thiebaut

Full results

	Results
	Mens							Womens
Place	Name	Nation	Bib	Time	Points		Place	Name	Nation	Bib	Time	Points
1	JAKOBUS STENGLEIIN	GER 1	114	01:33.0	1000		1	CHRISTIE CLISSMEYER	USA	97	01:47.5	1000
2	MICHELE RAMAZZA	ITA 1	202	01:33.5	980		2	KATERINA MIGDAVOA	CZE	169	01:47.7	980
3	HANNES BRANDSTATTER	AUT 1	54	01:34.8	965		3	ANNA JANKOWFSKY	GER	189	01:49.9	965
4	PAT KELLER	USA	35	01:35.4	950		4	LILLI WINTER	GER	190	01:52.0	950
5	HONZA LASKO	CZE 1	131	01:36.5	940		5	ROSIE CRIPPS	UK	162	01:54.8	940
6	JIRI KOPENY	CZE 2	192	01:36.6	930		6	DEB PINNIGER	UK	88	02:00.2	930
7	ANDREJ BIJUKLIC	SLO	143	01:37.3	920		7	MARIE PODUSKOVA	CZE	167	02:00.6	920
9	FRANCESCO SALVATO	ITA 1	203	01:37.4	910		8	SUSANNA MASSARO	ITA	163	02:08.6	910
10	RON FISCHER	CH 1	136	01:37.5	900		9	CLARE MCLENNON	NZL	154	02:12.0	900
11	ANDREA COLOMBO	ITA 2	75	01:39.0	890		dq	DEE ANDERSON	CAN	15	dq	0
12	JOHN GRACE	USA	37	01:39.1	880
13	AUSTIN RATHMANN	USA	45	01:39.2	870
8	THILO SCHMITT	GER 1	187	01:39.3	860
14	MARCO MERINI	ITA 2	98	01:39.4	850
15	BENJAMIN HERBRUEGGER	GER 1	168	01:39.5	840
16	DANIEL HERZIG	AUT 1	32	01:39.6	830
17	BENJAMIN HJORT	NOR 1	20	01:39.7	820
18	SEVENIN HABERLING	CH 1	151	01:40.2	810
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