After spending my first 5 days at the
University of Derby, I left my Halls on Friday afternoon to head to the
Whitewater Course at HPP. I decided to go for some much needed training for the
weekend’s competitions: the Youth Freestyle Finals and British League Event 3.
I had a good evenings training, mainly in
the Twin Waves as that is where I felt I needed to improve most. My moves were
coming together well with some nice Phonix’s, McNastys and Lunar Orbits.
I was back the following morning eager to
get on the water. I went into the event with a good ranking as I had some good
scores over the past few events. However, I knew that to get a good final
result that I’d have to put in a strong performance in the Sponsored Boys
Category in order to compete well against Tom Goddard, Brandon Hepburn, Matt
Rogers who have been paddling to a very high standard this season!
We practiced in the morning on the whole
course, Inlet Gate and Twin Waves were running nicely but most other features
were a little too flushy!
After lunch the competition started. For
the Age Categories and the Sponsored events the rides took place, one in the
Inlet Gate and one in the Twin Waves. I was really happy with my Inlet ride as
I scored 845points. My ride consisted of an Airloop,Godzillas both ways,
Cartwheels and Splitwheels linked both ways, a McNasty and a Lunar Orbit.
However, I let myself down with a poor Twin Waves ride scoring only 125points!
I was happy with my total of 970. It’s a little frustrating however that James
Benns managed a 1060 point ride in the Inlet Gate without his paddles…
The day finished with the Special Event
which consisted of a combination of swimming and paddling to retrieve balls
from the opposite river bank.
It was then time for the prize giving. Jake
Brooks took the 1st in the 18&under category, Jonny Williams 1st
in the 15&under category, Matt Rogers in the Sponsored Boys and Kim Aldred
in the Sponsored Girls. I came 5th behind Matt, Brandon, Tom and
James but I was happy with my result!
However for the overall series results for
the Sponsored Boys, Matt Rogers claimed 1st, Sam Stephenson 2nd,
and I came 3rd .
I was very happy with my overall result and
performance for the season and hope to paddle even better next season!
Pete Bridgeford and Tom Goddard also put in
fantastic performances from Team CKT!
Jake
No comments:
Post a Comment