Former NIAS athlete, Will Forsythe, has claimed his first National Open Championship victory, winning the Australian National Championships held at Eildon in VIC at the beginning of January. He is now the Australian Canoe Slalom Mens K1 Open Champion.

Heading into the event without a national open title, Will left the heat of Eildon with a welcome confidence boost after a convincing win. With the best of 2 runs on the 20 gate course to count, Will Forsythe of Big River Canoe Club (NSW) had to rely on his second run to claim his first title after judges awarded him a 50 second penalty on the penultimate gate on his first run. However, Forsythe made no mistakes, posting a clean second run almost 8 seconds clear of second place, with Aaron Osborne of New Zealand third. “The course was long and physically pretty challenging so I had to work really hard through the middle to keep a strong mental focus” said the AIS and NSWIS athlete “and it is good to start the year in this way”, he added. (http://slalom.canoe.org.au)

From there, Will has been to New Zealand training with Kiwi competitors and racing in the New Zealand National Selection Series. Kawarau hosted the first two of four races, with Forsythe claiming victory in both.
Will then travelled to the Mangahao Course in Palmerstone North. This was the site for the 2010 NZ Open and first of the 2010 International Canoe Federation (ICF) World Ranking Series races. There was a tough international field with Red Bull Sponsored athlete from the Czech Republic (winner of the Prague World Cup in 2008 and the U23 European Championships in 2009), Vavrinec Hradilek, plus 4th place 2008 Olympian from Ireland, Owen Reinish. Other nations represented included Britain, Canada, France, and of course, New Zealand. Forsythe won the opening day's racing on Saturday, and then backed up this performance on Sunday. “Will Forsythe of Australia continued his sizzling form to take the honours in the first of the New Year’s International Canoe Federation (ICF) Ranking races. Forsythe laid down the gauntlet in his first run with a clean 88.77, which proved to be the best result of the day. Raphael Reveche of France 0.8 seconds behind with Czech, Vavrinec Hradilek in 3rd. Top New Zealander Mike Dawson in 5th just 2.09 seconds from Forsythe.” (http://www.slalomnz.org.nz)

Forsythe has competed in 7 races this summer and managed to win 6 of them, finishing 2nd to  former World Champion and 2008 Olympic silver medalist Fabien Lefevre from France in a local race at Penrith just prior to departing for New Zealand.

Will now flies back to Australia where he'll prepare for the Oceania Championships which constitutes the first Australian National Team Selection Race and 2nd ICF Ranking Race of the year. “This will be a very tough race as most northern hemisphere nations choose to spend their winter in Australia, making use of the training facility at Penrith. Facing up against former World Champions and the current World Champion - it's bound to be a tough and exciting race.” 

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