Augsburg World Cup finals

It feels like the Augsburg finals happened quite some time ago now as we’re now in another country and surfing on a wave instead of a trashy hole. 

They were very exciting though. Emily Jackson got a really high-scoring 2^nd ride which included an entry move and McNasty giving her the gold medal. Ruth didn’t quite get it together like she had done in the semis and flushed a few times but she still had some nice loops and cartwheels which put her in 2^nd. Both Maria Lindgren, who was getting some really nice loops and air loops, and Nina Haslova scored a joint 250 points in their highest scoring ride but their second highest scores meant Maria took Bronze and Nina was 4^th. Marlene (Fra) didn’t manage to match her high score of the semis and dropped to 5^th.

The men’s final was tense and for the first couple of rides despite some of the paddlers getting a lot of the big moves they weren’t always landing them and didn't get close to Mathieu’s semi-final score of over 1000 points. EJ was consistent in getting air loops into lunar orbits, he took 3^rd place just 20 points behind Peter Csonka in 2^nd. Dustin Urban was looking like he was out of the competition as in his first 2 rides he wasn’t landing the moves he was going for, but all that is needed in the final is one ride and his last ride was the one that counted. He landed everything spot on including huge air loop, space godzilla, phonix and mcnasty giving him the winning score of over 800 points. Mathieu was another who couldn’t get his score of the semis and dropped to 5^th and Simon Stroheimer took 4th. 

As I wrote in my last post, James Weir took a well-deserved gold in the OC1. Lee Pyke took 5^th in the C1. 

Augsburg ladies prelims and semis

Familiar scenes of umbrellas and wet kit started the day yesterday. A little ‘de ja vu’ from last week as once again I reluctantly put my damp thermals on, which for some reason I left on the line in the rain rather than putting them under the tarp where it wasn’t raining! 

30 women started in the line-up including a couple more Brits: Claire O'Hara and Flic Meares. My first ride was a good one though and although my 2^nd ride consisted of a fair amount of flushing and lacked in air loops I got through to the semis in 6^th. Ruth Gordon had a couple of awesome rides with some really vertical split wheels, cleans and in her last ride she landed a McNasty, she was 1^st heading into the semis. Nina Haslova took 2^nd with rides that included some nice loops and super clean spins on the river left shoulder.

We were up again for the semis early evening and because of my 6^th place I was in the first heat, meaning I didn’t have the pressure of seeing other peoples rides, but with the instant scoring computer system I also didn’t have the advantage of seeing what score I needed to get to make it through to the next round. 

My first ride had a fair amount of flushing and I just managed to get some clean left ends on the buzzer to give me a 203 point ride (less than my ride in the prelims). I tried to do more in my next ride but I didn’t really get my loops going well and once again flushed a number of times (if you worry about flushing, generally you will!). I was leading the first heat but S then had to wait and unfortunately hope that just one of the girls up in the next heat would flush more than me! Both Emily and Marlene from France got through with their first rides and Marlene had a really strong second ride with air loops and split wheels giving her the top spot. Nina wasn't getting the rides that she had in prelims and although Maria (Sweden) got some nice loops I wasn't sure whether either would get more than 203.33 points - they did, Nina was through just ahead of me with 206.66 and Maria scored around 213. Ruth had a solid second ride which put her into 2nd place. So the whole top 5 remained the top 5 and I was out in 6th by just 3 points. 

Ah well, the party was a good one and we have another competition next week. I'm not used to watching finals from the shore though - I've only missed out on 3 finals in the last 6 years of national and international competition, so I'm going to be cheering on all the girls and hoping that they will all be throwing down some big moves for me! 

The guys all went huge in their semis and it looked tough to make top 5. We saw some huge scores. 

Our very own Pringle with a nice entry move, just missed out on top 10. 

Stephen Wright was leading going into semis and despite some huge space godzillas unfortunately dropped to 6th place. 

Matthieu (France) broke 1000 points as he threw down just about every move possible in the feature. I can't remember the order of the other 4 but EJ, Peter Csonka, Simon Stroheimer and Dustin Urban were all up there. 

Finals are on today. James Weir has taken the OC1 title with a huge 16o-something points! Lee Pyke was 5th in the C1 finals. 

 

Augsburg mens prelims

It seems like we've only just left Prague and already the next competition has started in Augsburg. The hole is very different to the one in Prague and for me there is a fine line between flushing, a beatdown, or landing a move nicely! However there is a definite opportunity for going big and some paddlers have been getting ridiculously huge air including junior Jonathan Shales from the US (pictured below) who easily made top 10 (I'm afraid I didn't find out the places of junior men)

Check out the photos of Jonathan and Stephen getting massive air on the Jacksonkayak website

and Stephen Wright, who took 1st place in the men's today. I didn't see his rides but I'm guessing he went big! Csonka was 2nd with a really high scoring 1st ride of around 970 points 

Peter Csonka had a really high scoring first ride. 

and EJ was only just behind in 3rd. Dustin Urban 4th and the Japanese guy (sorry, I can't remember his name) was also getting huge air and made 5th. Our very own Pringle (James Bebbington) got a top 10 spot with some nice McNasties and Phonix monkeys. Unfortunately Ed Smith, who had been looking really good in practice rides just missed out on the top 20 quarter final. 

Ed Smith getting air in practice. 

The C1s were also up today with Lee Pyke making the top 10 semis in 8th place. GB junior Tom Turner came in 12th so unfortunately didn't make the cut to semis. 

The ladies are up tomorrow. I'll update more then :) 

 

Finals - Prague World Cup

Yesterday was the finals of the first World Cup in Prague. The format was 3 rides 1 counts. We weren't reseeded after each ride which meant, as I had won the semis, I was last up in each round. I was up against some really strong paddlers and despite winning the semis with the highest ride of the ladies competition and getting the 2nd highest scoring ride of the comp in my prelims, I was not confident that I could do it again. As always I didn’t really watch the other rides so I could just concentrate on what I needed to do (and what I could do) rather than what others were doing. 

My first ride was a good one with an air loop and a loop and ends both ways with a clean (I think!) and/or a split wheel – I can’t really remember, but it scored 303.33 points, the highest of the round. I was pleased with the score but it wasn’t as big as my scores in the prelims and semis so I was hoping for more. My other rides though weren’t as high scoring, as although I was consistently landing really straight air loops (see Emily Wall's blog for a good photo of me mid-loop) and loops the clean cartwheels and split-wheels weren’t happening as well as they could have been. So, that was the score for everyone to beat in the following 2 rounds. 

I was still out in front after the 2nd round so in the final round I watched the other competitors to know if I needed to put in a higher scoring ride at the end. After the first 3 paddlers I realised I was going to be in 2^nd or 1^st place and it was just down to whether Emily Jackson scored more than me. Her last ride was a good one though and it looked from above as if she may have landed a McNasty (although its hard to tell when you’re not sat in the judges stand). I followed with my final ride and despite getting a big air loop and another loop I flushed early on my left-hand cartwheels and drifted off downstream a long time before the end of my ride only able to wait to hear the final scores.Bizarrely Emily had scored exactly the same as me: 303.33 so it was down to the 2^nd highest-scoring rides and my 276 points was more than Emily's 220 meaning I won!  Emily Jackson 2^nd, Ruth Gordon 3^rd, Jutta Kaiser 4^th (just 3 points behind Ruth), Adrienne 5^th.

The spectator stands were completely full by the time the men were on for their final. 

There were some really impressive rides, but also some not so impressive rides as for some of the guys the moves just didn’t seem to be happening. Peter Csonka definitely had an impressive ride as he, just like in the semis, pulled off a fluid sequence of moves from one to the next: phonics, Mcnasties, tricky whus both ways and air loops and of course a few split wheels, and carthweels thrown in. 

This was the first round and it was going to be hard to beat the 980 points that Peter scored. 

Peter Csonka McNastying

Nick Troutman had 2 really good rides, but didn’t get quite as many moves landed as Peter had done so he took 2^nd place.

 

Nick Troutman 

EJs rides never seemed to get going to his usual high standard and he took 4th just 3 points behind Mathieu who took the Bronze medal position with lots of cartwheels, splits, cleans and tricky whus. 

I didn’t’ get to watch any of the other finals as I was getting ready for mine, but well done to Lee Pyke (GB) for getting the Bronze in C1.

I’m glad I’m not flying home as I got a really heavy trophy: 

That's mine, that is! 

Prague World cup - men's semis

Last night’s men’s semi final was pretty spectacular and thankfully it stopped raining long enough so the big crowd could watch without umbrellas/getting soaking wet.The atmosphere was fantastic, almost as good as the floodlit semi I remember at the Sort Worlds (2001), only lacking in the big firework display after the event! 

The competitors seemed totally fired up to be out there and the standard of paddling was really high. Local favourite Peter Csonka had an amazing 1^st ride throwing down one aerial move straight after another- he pulled off everything in both directions and in quick succession - the crowd didn’t stop cheering and the judges kept on scoring, giving him over 900 points for his ride! EJ had a really good 2nd ride, but not quite as high scoring as Peter’s so he goes into the final in 2nd place behind Peter. Dustin Urban has been looking solid throughout the competition and has been landing his moves really straight; he took 3^rd (he came into the quarters in 3^rd place too – not Mathieu as I wrote in my last post). Nick Troutman was  4^th. 

The next 3 positions were really close in points and the spectators couldn’t call who would get through, When the results finally came out it was Mathieu who made finals in 5^th just knocking out Stephen Wright and Ed Smith by only a few points.

Finals will start at lunchtime, after a ramp competition (off a pretty big ramp).

Hooray it has stopped raining! I may be able to put some dry kit on and even take some photos! 

Prague - women's event

It is STILL raining!! Everything is wet: my kit, my towel, my clothes...brrrrr!  Thankfully the competition for me has been a lot more positive than the weather. The ladies were up this morning with a lot of heats! I was in the last one and it seemed to take forever before I was on (I've recently been used to just 3 or 4 heats, but there were 6 today). I had a really good first ride getting a whole bunch of clean ends - 13 apparently (6 moves), I'm not quite sure where they came from as I hadn't been getting that many in practice and I think the look on my face when I'd done them probably proved that! A loop and a split-wheel as well meant I was through to the semis in 2nd place behind Emily Jackson. 

We spent the afternoon eating crepes and avoiding the rain so I'm not sure what happened in the men's quarter finals - though the results were Nick Troutman 1st, Peter Csonka 2nd, Mathieu 3rd and EJ 4th. Ed Smith also did a good job making the semis in 7th. 

The women were on in the semis late afternoon and as I was one of the last up I once again tried not to watch anyone else's rides, so it wouldn't put me off. My first ride was OK but not great, but I managed to get a whole load of moves in my second including an air loop and loop and some cleans (again - good stuff!) giving me 400 points and first place! In our team training sessions leading up to events we always work towards precise moves to leave the judges in no doubt and to get it scored (the judging is strict in the UK!) so a 'clean' 400.00 (rather than .33) meant my moves were spot on so the judges were all in agreement. Emily Jackson was just behind me, Jutta Kaiser was 3rd, Ruth Gordon 4th and Adrienne (from US, sorry can't remember her last name) 5th. 

A clean slate tomorrow for finals though so we'll see what happens and I have the pressure of going last up (again!). In the meantime we are hoping for a little less rain for the men's night time semis which start in less than an hour. We are also hoping for less rain so that the feature doesn't go up any more and get more flushy, which has been happening since yesterday morning. 

Hopefully I'll take some photos tomorrow, it was far too miserable today. 

....I'm not sure drinking beer, because it is cheaper than soft drinks, is a good thing...I better find my water. 

Prague World Cup - prelims

Its been a little damp outside today, to say the least, so there was some tough decision making as to whether to do this (cafes, pancakes, sitting in the van/tent, staying warm/dry inside whilst watching the torrential rain):

or watch this (Junior Mens & Mens K1 prelims whilst getting soaking wet in the torrential rain): 

I'm afraid to say I've done a whole lot more of the former (and the mens heats are still happening whilst I type this). 

I did however emerge from the van for just long enough to see Maxime from France get some huge loops, phonix monkeys and a whole load of other big aerial moves to put him at the top of the Junior men's category:

I did hear a few of the guys commenting that they were happy they were no longer juniors! 

Unfortunately our only British junior competitor, Tom Turner, didn't quite manage to complete the moves he was going for and didn't make it through to the next round. 

From the few rides I have seen so far in the men's, Mathieu (France), EJ and Peter Csonka look to be fighting it out for a top spot with all of them getting aerial moves (phonix monkey's, McNasty's) in both directions with some super-super clean cartwheels from Mathieu and a

 lunar orbit from Peter. 

Peter Csonka looping (or maybe finishing a Mcnasty or phonix monkey)

There were strong rides as well from Toumas (Poland) and Ed Smith (GB). 

I'm afraid I didn't watch anyone else and there were still a lot of competitors to go so when I made for the cafe. There were one or two spectators still battling it out in the rain though so I'll try and get an update from them later! 

As for me, I'm up first thing tomorrow morning so I'm hoping: a) all of those who got knocked out today aren't going to get horrendously drunk and keep me awake until the early hours:); b) the violent vomiting 'river-bug' that has affected a large number of paddlers isn't going to kick in anytime soon and c); it will stop raining so my kit will be vaguely dry by morning....

hmmm...wishful thinking....