July 19, 2006 -- Atlanta, GA

How did the USA Wildwater Team Perform Overall in this year in International Competition? Who are the World beaters? Who are the up and comer's?

This "quick and dirty" statistical analysis (based on percentage off of the World Champion) gives a great overview of how Team USA did this year in Europe. And the results are VERY GOOD. We need to encourage the 2006 Team to keep on training and improving.

Andrew McEwan truly deserves our respect. Racing against the best in Europe (on their home rivers) he averaging 7.7% off of the winner in all of his races. But it gets better than that. Andrew finished 5.8% back in the World Championship Classic Race and 4.2% back the Classic race in Mezzanna Italy (WC1). Finishing less than 5% against the best in the World means that you are doing more than competing at the elite level, you ARE ONE of the BEST in the WORLD. We look forward to seeing what Andrew can do in the years to come.

Tom Wier (C-1) and Geoff Calhoun (K-1) ended in a virtual statistical tie at 10.3+% of the leaders in their classes. Tom should end up ranked in the top 10 and Geoff should be ranked in the top 15-20 best paddlers overall in the Word when the bean counters get through tabulating the results.

Andrew McEwan, Geoff Calhoun, and Tom Wier all qualified for the USA Wildwater Team's "Performance Funding." USA Wildwater is dedicated to working to improve the funding for our high performance athletes.

Eric Orenstein is truly a gusty up and comer. He has finished in the top 40 in the World in his first year of international competition and he is rapidly improving. His season’s best against the best in the World was a scant 14.5% back. This is a great accomplishment for a Junior. STICK WITH IT ERIC and good things will come your way!

But I cannot say enough good things about our Masters racers. David Jones, Mike Beck and John Pinyerd all performed dual roles and raced against the best at the World Championships in additional to racing against competition that was more fair (in their Master's age group). In addition, they each filled vital roles in the USA Team runs. Jones ended up with the Bronze in K-1 (in the 55+ age group) and Pinyerd ended up with Gold in C-1 (in the 45-54 age group) They were also joined by Dave Mason (who won Gold in Masters 55+), Maurizio Tognocci (who won Bronze), Mike Harris (who finished in the top 10 in his age group), and Bern Collins (who is an incredible athlete competing against paddlers a dozen years younger than him). And if the medals were handed out fairly, Bern Collins would have won Silver in the 65+ age group.

So when it was all said and done, here's the numbers (based on percentage back):

• Worlds Classic: 15.5% back on average (best was Andrew McEwan 5.8% back)
• Worlds Sprint:: 11.7% back on average (best was Andrew McEwan at 6.4% back)
• World's Masters: 8.0% back on average (best was John Pinyerd and Dave Mason with Gold; Tognocci and Jones with Bronze)
• USA 2006 Worlds/World Cup Average Overall: 11.7% back

Click here to see the complete analysis.

John Pinyerd
USA Canoe/Kayak - Wildwater Committee Chairman
web: www.usawildwater.com
email: jpinyerd@usawildwater.com