Published on September 4th, 2015 | by Kayak Session
Inside the 2015 Freestyle Worlds With EJ – Ep5, Womens Prelims (Full Report, Video, Photos, Results)
Women’s Prelims- 2015 World Freestyle Kayak Championships
Last night, only minutes after the Men’s Prelims concluded, we had a quite a storm, with high winds, massive rain, and lots of lightning right on top of the arena. It caused a delay this morning for the Women, starting at 9:30 am instead of 8am, but it did start off with no hitches.
Inside the 2015 Freestyle World with EJ. Video recap of the Wo…
Video recap of the Womens Prelims. Inside the 2015 Freestyle World with EJ. (Shot and edited by Isaac Levinson) Kayak Session Magazine Jackson Kayak 2015 ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships #freestyle #kayaking #whitewater
Posted by Kayak Session Magazine on Friday, September 4, 2015
The first heat had current World Junior Champion Rowan Stuart lead off the Women’s Heat one and day three of the worlds. Rowan threw a solid run with awesome moves, going for blunts, Pan Ams, and back blunts. She is adapting into the senior class well! Adrienne Levknecht, from the USA has been training very well here and throwing awesome moves, getting big vertical blunts and some awesome Pan Ams as well. She didn’t disappoint, ramping up ride after ride, with her 4th and final ride being a 500 point ride- which is awesome on this wave.
Rowan Stuart showing some solid skills on garb. ©kayaksession.com / P. Holcombe
Jessie Stone, working hard to show off her skills developed over the years on the Nile River, was not able to get her aerial moves going well enough to make the cut. Courtney Kerin, former junior medalist, had two good rides to put a solid score on the board.
Jessie Stone (Usa) ©kayaksession.com / P. Holcombe
One of the top females from France, Marlene Devillez, struggled to get started but did get two good rides to go by the end. She is used to winning events in Europe, but didn’t make it past the prelims at NOC two years ago, and hopefully her scores will get her into Semi-finals today!
In Heat 2: Emily Jackson, Joshiko Suematsu from Japan, Emily Ward from Uganda, all had great rides. Emily Jackson threw her routine 2 out of 4 times but some of her moves didn’t count, making her 700 point rides be 400 and high 300’s. She finished just behind Adrienne getting some great rides, but not scoring some of her big ones, which I would guess she’ll get in semi-finals.
For those that doubted it, Emily Jackson is Back! ©kayaksession.com / P. Holcombe
Heat 3 Claire Ohara flushed early on some of her rides finishing in 7th after her heat, leaving the door open to get knocked out by heat 4 which has 4 good boaters that could beat her 360 combined. Everyone has their fingers crossed that Claire will not miss finals as she won at NOC and is the current world champion! Hitomi, the silver medalist from NOC worlds, had some great rides to put herself in 3rd after three heats. Hitomi threw a McNasty, which she has done some awesome ones in practice. It didn’t count as it was too low angle, but still was very good and had the crowd on their feet!
Hitomi Takaku (Jap) ends up in 3rd and confirm her world level status. ©kayaksession.com / P. Holcombe
The levels were still perfect today, and the sun shining and 90 degrees out. People swimming and enjoying the awesome environment. Today is Speedo Thursday, of course, so I have been enjoying the Speedo weather. I was scolded and told I was not allowed to fish in the eddy while coaching Team Jackson Kayak, Team USA, etc.. I had to put down my rod and just hang while waiting between rides and people I was coaching; but not before landing 4 bass…Awesome!
EJ applying in front of the crowd for European citizenship his brand new Speedo… ©kayaksession.com / P. Holcombe
Heat 4 was a nail biter as 4 paddlers clearly have the talent to make the top 10 and this is the last heat! Katie Kowalski-Canada, Nici Beeby- England, Nuria Fontane-Spain, Lowri Davies-England are all paddling really well and Motoko from Japan is always a threat for Semi-finals. Being at the bottom of the top 10 list, like Courtney Kerin, who is in 9th after three heats is a scary place to watch the final heat from. Claire Ohara is sitting in a similar position at 7th, but has more wiggle room than Courtney… So…
Local Katie Kowalski feeling at home on garb’ ©kayaksession.com/ P. holcombe
Nuria Fontane gets herself in on her third ride and so does Katie Kowalski! Niki Beebe is on the bubble and so is Lowri Davies…. and the final rides just finished and….
Top 10 making it through are:
- Adrienne Levknecht- USA- 950
- Emily Jackson- USA- 803
- Hitomi Takaku- Japan- 501
- Emily Ward- Uganda- 426
- Rowan Stuart- USA- 410
- Marlene Devillez- France- 395
- Katie Kowalski- Canada- 393
- Nuria Fontane- Spain- 366
- Claire Ohara- England- 360
- Ekatrina Kulkova- Russia- 340
The top 10 are set for tomorrow’s Semi- Finals, where they will cut to the top 5 with 2 rides and only 1 counts. Today they had 4 rides and 2 counted. Two short heats that will go fast and there will be no room for error for these ladies if they want to go to the big show- the finals on Saturday!
C1 about to go and we’ll be finished with the Prelims for all classes!
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