PADDLER
PADDLER
78
TUESDAY
Day two had slightly lower water levels, but they were still good enough to run the event on the river left, as scheduled. The K1 men kicked the day off, with what stacked up to be a very tough competition for the 20 places in the quarter finals. GB team veteran Alan Ward showed his experience, laying down just enough moves to move him through to the semi-finals in 20th position. A bit further up the scoreboard were his teammates Ben Higson and Gav Barker, all making it through to the quarter-finals. A few paddlers fell foul of the shallower levels, hitting the rocks and missing tricks. Some of the bigger names to miss the quarterfinal cut included Harry Price, Nick Troutman, Eric Jackson, and Visa Rahkola. In contrast, the French youngster Tom Dolle took the top spot.
Now it was the turn of the junior K1 women, looking to make their top 10 semi-final cut. Defending world champion Makinley Kate Hargrove( USA) showed why she is world champion, taking the top spot with a 1000-point combined score, some 680 points clear of Issie Wormall( GBR) in second place. It is also worth noting that Martha Biyinzika of Uganda became the country’ s first-ever junior woman to compete on the freestyle world stage.
Junior men took to the wave next, again chasing the top 10 spots for the semi-finals. Reigning European Champion, Jonas Hermann( Austria), had two strong rides to give him the first-place position. Great Britain’ s Jamie Rowland and proud Welshman Math Craddock also made the cut to the semi-finals.
C1 women finished the day off, again looking to secure their place in the semi-finals. Defending world champion Ottilie Robinson-Shaw( GBR) got off to a rocky start but showed her composure to come back with a huge second run and top the leaderboard. Local paddler Anica Schacher( Germany) was hot on her heels, though, coming in second place. And Austria’ s Jasmin Stangl-Brachnik rounded off the top three spots in third.
WEDNESDAY
The river levels remained stable for a third day, allowing the event to proceed on the river’ s left bank again. And it was finally the turn of the C1 men, in my non-biased opinion, the best class. Sebastian Nelle( Germany) demonstrated how his hours of training on the feature were to his advantage, pulling off a huge first ride of 776 points( enough to put him straight through in third place!). He backed it up with another great run to move into the semi-finals in first place. Brits Matt Stephenson and Harry Price both posted solid scores, advancing them to the semi-finals as well.
Our Master’ s categories followed, with the men and women split into three age groups each: 40 +, 50 +, and 60 +. It was a great display of paddling from everyone, with historic world champions taking to the water alongside supportive parents whose turn it was