Tully turns it on for world’s rafting elite
THE title of “best world titles ever” beckons for Tully after blitzing the pre-worlds for the 2019 World Rafting Championships.
Organisers and community stakeholders met yesterday to celebrate the year-to-go milestone and International Rafting Federation president Joseph Willis Jones said he was brimming with excitement about the potential for the event.
“I was so impressed, especially for the slalom event where I was downstream acting as a judge on the lower gates and looking upriver at the stairway rapids, from my viewpoint I was like: ‘Wow. This has got all the elements we’re looking for’,” he said.
“It’s a beautiful rapid, very challenging, definitely worldclass for a rafting competition, so we’re very pleased and really excited about coming here a year from now and bringing everybody with us.
“The organisation here is really behind it, a lot of old river guides involved who know the river inside and out, which is good from a safety standpoint, which is what we keep high on our list.
“I feel like the crew we have to work with, the enthusiasm particularly with the community and the river people here, is just overwhelming.
“I think easily this could turn out to be one of the best World Championships ever.”
Australian teams were selected at the pre-worlds and they stand to dominate the 2019 titles. Around 80 per cent of the athletes hail from north Queensland and know the Tully River back-to-front.
It could take some getting used to for the visitors after Japan’s Open men’s team, who have been in the Far North for several weeks training, were caught out on their first timed slalom run.
“They ended up winning it on the second run, but on the first run they actually got stuck out in a hole for a while and it was a big surprise for them ... and it’s exactly what we want to see in a world-level event,” Jones said.
Event director Graham Maifredi said the test run was successful thanks to a surprise influx of volunteers, which bodes well for when the real thing rolls around next year.
“It was amazing the help from the people who just turned up, (had) seen the big picture and got on board, tucked in without a word or worry and helped out,” he said.
“Volunteers, you can’t get unique events like this off the ground without them and the fact old guides I hadn’t seen for 30 years just turned up, it made me quite emotional actually.”
The technically challenging slalom course, which took three days to construct, drew high praise, one of the biggest infrastructure feats of the weekend alongside the successful installation of the NBN in Tully Gorge, which will enable live streaming of the event worldwide next year.
I THINK EASILY THIS COULD TURN OUT TO BE ONE OF THE BEST WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS EVER
Find out how our local hopes will muscle up for 2019 in tomorrow’s Cairns Post.