Barry's Blog: 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