ICF Freestyle Worlds - Day 3 report.

ICF Freestyle Worlds - Day 4 report.
By: Bobby Johnson
Photos: Jens Klatt

Semi Finals day…

The serious business started this morning with the semi finals for all categories; the tension was quite high in all heats, from the junior to the top classes, as a spot in the world championships finals was a stake…

The athletes in the men class who finished very late last night (midnight!…) their quarter finals rounds under cold pouring rain, were certainly a little tired from big rides and very little sleep, and the scores this morning are way lower than yesterday. Was it the slightly lower water level, the pressure, or last nights efforts? Probably a bit of all…
However once again we saw really solid rides to see Peter Csonska with 910 points (Slovakia), Nick Troutman 856 pts (Canada), Stephen Wright 818 pts (Usa), Gerd Serrasolses 795 pts (Spain), and James “pringle” Bebington 733 pts advancing to the finals! Well done boys…

The Junior Class was, was once again dominated by Dane Jackson (USA), who simply scored the biggest ride of the day for a total of 1130 point… food for though for the men’s class on Saturday for the finals… we could see on Saturday, for the first time in history, a junior scoring higher than the men’s class… it is in fact really possible, seeing Dane, going so big on any given rides…Although Dane’s domination is really high, let’s do not forget either Joaquim Fontané from Spain who scored 806 pts, that would have placed him in forth in the men’s class…James Benns, Teemu Vaeliahdet and Bren Orton, completing the top 5 for the finals.

The Ladies went on a little earlier and we saw Emily Jackson (Usa) getting back the top position (after a disappointing quarters finals) with 610 pts, followed by Claire O’Hara 563 pts (Uk), Ruth Gordon 515 pts, Nina Haselova 443 pts (Slovakia), And Haley Mills 363 pts form the Usa…
Junior girls came on right before with Kiwi Courtney Kerin leading the pack with 210 pts, in front of Lauren Burgess (USA), Tora Heggem (Norway), Kim Aldred (UK) and Gabby Bates (UK).

The C1 class was there again very impressive to watch, even with rides scoring half of what they did last night… here also, little sleep and late rides must have had an impact on the boy’s performance this morning…with Spanish paddler Aitor Goikoetxea taking the driver’s seat with 550 pts, in front of Igor Juanikorena (spain), Dane Jackson, Phil Hitzigrath (Germany) and Seth Chapel from the USA.

Finally the OC1 and squirt class came to finish the day as a smooth way the welcome the rain coming back in the Plattling’s sky.
These are the two class that did better than yesterday; we saw longer mystery moves and longer rides for the OC1…

So the day is over here in Plattling; The flood alert threat is now highly reduced, but just to be sure the organizers and officials kept the day of tomorrow as fun event day (Friday is supposed to be day when the rises…); As a consequence (and as originally planned) the Finals will take place on Saturday.

So, with no competition tomorrow, the Stern Pub on Mainstreet will be most likely crowded tonight, not to mention the Beerfest in town this week. We should see some paddlers with sour head and sungle$asses tomorrow for sure!

It would be also only fair to thanks the judges and volunteers that kept their heads together throughout a 16 hours long day of competition yesterday! And back on the job at 7 this morning….Thank you all for making this possible!...