The News

Thun, Switzerland - The 2009 Freestyle World Championships are underway and the bar has been set high early on.

A small wave in a picturesque location is the scene for the 2009 Freestyle World Championships, athletes and supporters from all over the world have descended on Thun where event organiser Simon Hirter has pullled out all the stops to have a huge professionally run event.

Australia and New Zealand have both sent small teams to the event, and after the preliminary round only three Australians are left in the running. Young Sydney based ripper James Rowlinson has made it into the Junior Semi-Finals with a 9th place in preliminaries. Tanya Faux sits comfortably in 4th position in the womens division, waiting to unleash her competitive streak come finals day. And there is still high hopes in the men's division as Anthony Yap enters the top 30 in his brand new Titan Kayak design.

New Zealand had two mens representatives who placed 75th and 77th in the preliminary round. They were Eden Sinclair of Hokitika and Jason Searle of Cromwell who is based at Massey University in Palmerston North. Lachlan Carracher and Sam Andrew of Australia also finished in the middle of the results sheet. 

More results to come, who will be the 2009 mens champion? Massive scores are being throwdown by Nick Troutman of Canada, but the competition will only heat up with plenty of big names still in the running; Peter Csonka, Billy Harris, Stephen Wright, Anthony Yap, Casper Van Klamhout, Bryan Kirk and of course Eric Jackson.

Emily Jackson, Ruth Gordon, Tanya Faux and Mariann Saether look set to have a strong contest for the womens division. While the juniors are posting scores that would have them on the top of the mens division. US paddler Jason Craig is the favourite, but there are still some European dark-horses and of course another member of the Jackson family - Dane.

Here's a quick clip of some of the mens preliminary rides and some freestyling from Rush Sturges at the event opening.