End of the championships!
Wow! What an emotional week! The competition has been fun, and great results for the Brits and me - 3rd place. Hooray! A place on the podium at last. We were hoping for Lynsey to be on there as well - 2 brits on the podium would have been amazing, but unfortunately she just missed out.
The finals were hard. The scores had been up and down all week, with lots of people getting really high scoring rides followed by a flushy, low-scoring and no variety rides. It was very difficult to be consistent on the feature. Ruth Gordan found this out in the semis - another strong paddler not making finals. I'd scraped into 4th place in the final, and felt lucky to be in there as I my rides were not great. Any of the top five could have got the top places and it was down to who pulled out the best rides at the right time. I had an awesome first ride with cartwheels both ways and a loop, getting me through the first round. My second ride was solid enough to get me into a medal position. Unfortunately both Tanya and Lynsey both flushed several times during their final rides and didn't get the scores that they had been getting during the week. Going into my third ride, I knew I was going to get at least a bronze - the pressure was now on to up that position. I watched Kristen have a solid ride of carthweels both ways so I knew I had to stay retentive. Well, I did stay retentive but only got left ends - I got stuck in the 'pit' and somehow managed a flurry of flat spins!! What was going on? I hadn't managed a single flat spin in the whole two weeks on the feature! I was desperately trying to get the boat vertical but it wasn't working, and I couldn't get the boat to the top of the pile to go for a loop. My score was read out - my lowest of the competition. Kristen and Jutta moved on to the next round, and I was left to contemplate the 'what if's' but, not for long. Hey, 3rd in the world - good!
I hate competing in knockout finals - my nerves can't cope, and often it's not always the best paddler that wins, and although it's the nature of the competition, I don't like to see people advance due to others flushing or having a bad ride. However, in this final, Jutta showed she was the best paddler in each round - she performed consistently under the pressure and she also got the highest scoring ride of the competition. She was getting vertical ends, cleans and super-cleans. Kristen from the U.S consistently got vertical as well, getting her the silver place in her first (I think) World Championships. Nice one!
The rest of the day was nearly as tiring as my final - emotions were going up and down when each Brit performed in EVERY final. Arrrgggh. The british support was awesome. As is always the way - some came away very happy, others disappointed, but as a team we produced the best results ever.
I am now getting ready for 5 weeks in NZ, can't wait.
The finals were hard. The scores had been up and down all week, with lots of people getting really high scoring rides followed by a flushy, low-scoring and no variety rides. It was very difficult to be consistent on the feature. Ruth Gordan found this out in the semis - another strong paddler not making finals. I'd scraped into 4th place in the final, and felt lucky to be in there as I my rides were not great. Any of the top five could have got the top places and it was down to who pulled out the best rides at the right time. I had an awesome first ride with cartwheels both ways and a loop, getting me through the first round. My second ride was solid enough to get me into a medal position. Unfortunately both Tanya and Lynsey both flushed several times during their final rides and didn't get the scores that they had been getting during the week. Going into my third ride, I knew I was going to get at least a bronze - the pressure was now on to up that position. I watched Kristen have a solid ride of carthweels both ways so I knew I had to stay retentive. Well, I did stay retentive but only got left ends - I got stuck in the 'pit' and somehow managed a flurry of flat spins!! What was going on? I hadn't managed a single flat spin in the whole two weeks on the feature! I was desperately trying to get the boat vertical but it wasn't working, and I couldn't get the boat to the top of the pile to go for a loop. My score was read out - my lowest of the competition. Kristen and Jutta moved on to the next round, and I was left to contemplate the 'what if's' but, not for long. Hey, 3rd in the world - good!
I hate competing in knockout finals - my nerves can't cope, and often it's not always the best paddler that wins, and although it's the nature of the competition, I don't like to see people advance due to others flushing or having a bad ride. However, in this final, Jutta showed she was the best paddler in each round - she performed consistently under the pressure and she also got the highest scoring ride of the competition. She was getting vertical ends, cleans and super-cleans. Kristen from the U.S consistently got vertical as well, getting her the silver place in her first (I think) World Championships. Nice one!
The rest of the day was nearly as tiring as my final - emotions were going up and down when each Brit performed in EVERY final. Arrrgggh. The british support was awesome. As is always the way - some came away very happy, others disappointed, but as a team we produced the best results ever.
I am now getting ready for 5 weeks in NZ, can't wait.
posted by flea at 7:37 am 
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