2013 Worlds – Mens Prelims

The long day of Men’s Prelims has come to a close. Prelims are always a bit of a weird one, you have no throw away rides (2 rides – combined score counts) and everyone is usually a bit tense, you get some paddlers saving themselves and others going all out to show what they can do. Some people got lucky, some didn’t but now its over, those that are through can settle down a bit and start showing what they can really do without the nerves and pressure of the first round.

For myself I was eager to get started, first ride was going great until I got a bit hung up on my Lunar, then 2nd ride went all a little bit off my usual style, but it was enough to put me in 9th with 1829 points (cut is to 20), not my best by a long way but good to get the nerves out of the system. I like not being too high up the placings until the later rounds but also don’t want to cut it too close. Last Worlds I think I started similarly so lets hope I follow that Worlds trend

 

All GB men made the cut! So we’re super stoked! Palm’s Bren Orton safely took 8th with 1859 and Alan Ward took 16th with 1610.

All the favourites safely made it through with no major upsets, and now people will be more settled and I expect the top positions will be switching every round until finals with things so close.

Overall win for the day went to Dane Jackson, he did two very consistent rides with many huge moves to take the top spot. Mathieu Dumoulin linked it up to take 2nd followed by a powerful showing by Peter Csonka to take 3rd, Nicholas Troutman was 4th, Jason Craig 5th and fellow Dagger paddler Tomasz Czaplicki in 6th. (full results below).

 

 

Tomorrow we have Women’s Prelims in the morning then Mens quarters in the afternoon. So please cheer us all on as we’ll need all the support we can get! Tune into the live stream on http://www.freestylekayaking2013.com/

Pringle