50 to 20, Quarter’s in Thun: Day 5

Rain, rain and more rain was the order of the day on a damp Friday, quarter finals day for the ladies and men in Thun. After a late start and after lunch, the ladies heats got under way. However, over on the out channel in Thun all morning had the Squirt boaters been battling it out for final honours.

These subsurface squirt boats had 60 seconds to do both a flat water sequence and mystery move on an eddy line. Through Thursday afternoon, the prelims and semi final had cut the field to the top 5 for both ladies and men. The traditional strong nations of Japan, USA and the UK were all in the running. In the ladies the ’07 champion Valerie Bertrand, a Canadian who now lives in Norway headed the pack, but UK power ball Claire O’Hara managed to blow away the competition to take the gold with Scot’s lass Emma Runciman just steeling second from Valerie. For the guys its was a tight affair with the honours split between Uk paddler James Reeves, Ishihara Toru of Japan and Jeremy Laucks from the USA respectively. Toru had been using the far river right eddy, where the seam line along the eddy fence provided often spectacular mystery move combo’s, yet it was James’s wonderful smooth style whilst cartwheeling away in the eddy, that brought home the bacon.

Over on the Inner Channel, after lunch the ladies got under way. Easier heats were full of safe surfin’ with the occasional big move, and yet these were all to expensive, resulting in short runs. It was a tense affair, until the third heat when Martina Wegman from Holland hit two ace rides, and place pressure on the last heat of top girls from the Prelims. In the final heat Mariann Sæther of Norway started with big bang, with her whole ride, in fact all her rides were much the same, explosive, aerial and full of confidence, clearly Mariann’s performance is peaking at the right time. Also Tanya Faux gave explosive rides, often waiting to set up for that perfect move, but when the moves came, they were very convincing indeed. The pressure of the occasion, killed off Jesse Stone, whose’ early short rides played on her performance, a great shame as she’d been hitting numerous donkey flips in training and the prelims. The duel between Emily and Ruth stepped up in intensity, where both managed to extend their donkey flip efforts into air screws. The site of the style of move in a competition is a real step forward for the girls and proof that the sport is still charging onwards. The cut for the top 5 spots in the Semi’s went to Emily, Ruth, Mariann, Tanya and Martina. Lower down in 6th place, Paula Suurseppä from Finland gave determined rides with several felixes.

In the mens Quarter Final, the energy went into overdrive from the first heat, the boys stepped up to the occasion and gave us great rides. The likes of Tyler Curtis booked his place in the Semi’s with several smooth runs and calculated tricks. The key was two good rides, and this is where the cast of men fell short to deliver. Other notables whom gave great single rides were Billy Harris, Simon Strohmeier, Byran Kirk and Anthony Yap. Paddlers able to deliver were several established performers with Eric Jackson, Steve Wright and Casper Van Kalmthout, all providing the goods over two runs. With the army of French Supporters with drums, tricolour flags, moustache’s and a live chicken, Jules Gallais fired it up to pull himself into the Semi’s. Yet the real tight end of the last heat brought the real attention grabbing show. Miku from Finland, who was first up in the final heat, turned up the pressure with an amazing ride, huge air everything, clean blunt, air screw and pistol flip, thus unknown to the international scene was paddling wonderfully right in the scorching heat of the competition. Peter Csonka blew his first ride, so added considerable pressure to his second run, yet the professional performer made his mark with a killer ride, and proved that come the Semi’s he has what it takes to deliver. Nick Troutman, yet again gave us all a lesson in modern aerial freestlye, loving the crowd, firing them up before heading into the wave, its show time and this is the entertainment. At this point it is increasingly difficult to wonder how Nick can be beaten. Still tomorrow evening its Semi Finals, where one ride counts out of two runs, and here is the most difficult round to ensure your shot at the crown on Sunday. In Finals you get three runs and one counts, a little easier, but with some much at stake who can say, right now things are looking very interesting for everyone watching.