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!