Worlds Wrap Up

The 2013 World Championships have finally come to close with the sleepy mountain resort of NOC  returning to the norm. For the past two months paddlers from all over the world have been making the treck to the Nantahala Gorge with it all coming to a climax on Sunday as finals were played out. No Irish paddlers made the finals this year but we had some promising results with Billy Brett and David McClure making it through to the semi finals in Junior Men finishing 9th and 10th respectively giving us something to cheer for.

With the big jump in standard this year competition was fiercer then ever with the cut to make it out of prelims in 20th place being 1500. To give you some perspective Stephen Wright posted a score of 1400 to sit in first place after prelims at the 2011 worlds in Plattling. The jump in standard was great to see and made the event great for spectators. Some massive rides were thrown down with the height of it coming in the quarter finals with Mathieu Dumoulin laying down an unbelievable ride of 1520 with nearly every move being linked with end over end cartwheels and splits while going huge on all his loop moves. However Mathieu was not at the top of the board long as Dane Jackson then topped it with a 1560 getting huge and clean bonus's on all his loop moves. Dane went on to put in another 1500+ second ride to set a new record for a two ride combined score of over 3100 points. With all the big scores some surprises were on the cards with 2011 world champion James Bebbington making an early exit in 11th place.

Semi finals took place Saturday night under the flood lights which lit up the Nantahala river as if it was daylight. With a packed crowd squeezed in trying to get a good view of the action the atmosphere made for an electric semi final round. Prior to the light set up bring seen there was some concern and a push by some to have the semi finals moved back during daylight. At the last worlds quarter finals were held under lights but due to the size of the river lights on all sides of the river were not possible making it difficult to seem where you were in the feature at all times. The team at NOC put together a light set up that took away this fear with lights enclosing the river on all sides to light it up as bright as day. Hopefully we will see more events under the light as it really does create a special atmosphere. 

Scores under the lights did not reach the height of the quarter finals but were no less impressive with Dane Jackson taking top spot once again with a ride of 1200 +. Mathieu Dumoulin was the surprise casualty of the semi finals going out in 6th place to Britain's Alan Ward who took the last place in Sundays final. 

Sunday saw finals kick off early with Men's and Women's squirt first where Clay Wright and Claire O Hara took the honors. Next up was OC1 with Jordan Poffenberger taking top spot throwing some impressive mcnasty's along the way. Juniors were up next with local paddler Rowan Stuart taking top spot in Junior Women. Junior Men's final showed just how good the next generation of seniors are with it taking a ride of over 1000 points to just get on the podium. Americas Hunter Katich taking top spot with a ride take would have seen him place well in the seniors final. In C1 Jordan Poffenberger knocked Dane Jackson off top spot to claim his second word title of the day with an spectacular ride of over 1000 points

Women's finals saw the action heating up with Japanese paddler Hitomi Takaku taking top sport with her first ride of 650 points. She held the lead until the last ride of the final when Clare O Hara pulled it out of the bag with a ride of just over 700 points. Mens finals saw some big score once again with the top three all hitting 1200 + rides. Dane Jackson took top spot to complete the Worlds having lead at every round of the competition. Peter Csonka was narrowly beat in the second place by only seven points.  Tomasz Czaplicki rounded off the podium in his carbon Dagger Jitsu capping a great competition for him.

The results for the Irish Guys in senior and junor men's were as follows

Senior Men
31st   Barry Loughnane

34th  Tom Dunphy
37th  Andrew Regan
51st  Robbie O'Shea
59th  Conor Macken

Junor Men
9th    Billy Brett
10th  David McClure
18th  Shane Little

2013 Worlds Begin

The 2013 World Championships have finally kicked off with the opening ceremony taking place in Bryson City last night. Teams from every nation took part in the parade through Bryson which ended with the local Cherokee Tribe performing their ritual dance before the air ramp competition took centre stage for the night. There was a huge turn out from Bryson  and the surrounding area making everyone feel welcome and create a great atmosphere for the start of the event

This morning saw the first competitors taking to the water with Junior Men opening the show. Ireland's David McClure was in the first heat and laid down solid rides to book his places in the semi finals later in the week. Heat 2 saw Shane Little put in a solid performance but unfortunately for some very strict judging he missed out on progressing to the semi finals. Heat 4 had Ireland's last competitor in Junior Men in Billy Brett and he did not disappoint, linking tricks and going big to qualify in 6th place for the semi finals. 

Billy going big

Next up for the Irish will be Senior Men on Thursday, Conor Macken and I are in the first heat which is starting at 4pm Irish time. Andrew and Robbie go later in the day with Tom the last Irishman to compete. Having seen how hard the judging is this year all efforts will be on completing moves straight and finishing rotations to get all the points we can. If moves are only slightly off they will be scored zero points so the pressure is on to have every move perfect come Thursday. 

Shane dropping in for his first ride

For the last week we have been solely concentrating on forty five second competition rides in training with whistles, timers and the camera rolling. The aim is to know your ride inside out and be able to throw it down when it counts. With every nation allocated a training slot we have only been getting half an hour on the water each day which usually works out at four training rides of forty five seconds each. After each session we go through the video to see what moves scored and what ones didn't to give us a idea of where we are with our ride plan.  Most are happy with their rides and focused for prelims on Thursday. 

NOC at night

In Senior Men's the field of seventy odd paddlers will be cut to just the top twenty who will progress to quarter finals on Friday. With so many good paddlers from every nation it will be a tough challenge to make the cut. Two years ago in Platting the cut to quarters was around the 700 point mark but with the jump in standard that two years gives it looks like the cut mark could be over 1,000 points. That will take two solid rides with big tricks and minimal time padding back up the eddy in the event of a flush. 

Team Ireland

In spite of all that and the pressures that the competition creates everyone is in great spirits and really enjoying just being here at Worlds. NOC have put on one of the best shows in kayaking with a picture perfect venue high in the Smokey Mountains and a world class resort surrounding the feature. Live music and sponsored events for the public to take part in are taking place every day from now till the close of the event on Sunday evening so the focus isn't entirely on the athletes competing. 

Taking the competition aside this has been a great trip to a new destination with a bustling paddling community of amazingly friendly and generous people. Hopefully the whole Irish Team can cap off the trip with some great performances over the coming days.

Here's a few more photos from the last week

 Getting some air during trainin

Carbon repairs 

Passing the day 

The recruited Irish 

More air ramp 

 Dave waiting for his second ride

Shane going big 

 Billy about to drop in

Ireland on the score  board 

Billy waiting for his second ride 

Air ramp