Day1 – The event begins
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Arriving in style at Pigeon |
After a recovery day in Rock Island
with Islay and Clay we arrive to start training at Pigeon Hole, but
the way the water release is working we are straight into
competition. So Tuesday afternoon 1pm the water arrives and the event
kicks off.
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Claire O loving the feature |
Pigeon hole is an incredible feature,
super stable and super sweet so rides are really impressive from the
start. All paddlers have the chance to show of the best of their
paddling and its super impressive to watch the rides. Due to the
lack of training time its noticeable how much each paddler improves
during each ride as they figure out and adjust their style to suit
the feature. Men are up first followed by Women. I love this feature
and make the cut in 1st place. Pring and David also make it
through to the next round with some impressive first runs.
Day 2 – The heat(s) continue
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Bradon arrives and goes straight into action |
Next day and its time for the junior
classes, C1 and OC1. Bren absolutely tears up the feature as does
Brandon in his first International World Cup event.
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KC Jackson cheers on his big brother as he heads out to do his runs |
The day finishes with the squirt
boating heats on a sweet little seam just downstream of the main
feature. The freestyle hole is closed during the squirt event so
everyone comes and watches creating a great atmosphere. Again there
are a lot of freestyle kayaks in the squirt heats but there are also
8 squirt boats (4 men and 4 women). The Pigeon spot has a great
mystery seam that Alabama and Clay have been working on developing
ready for the event. The event kicks of with the ladies and me,
Motoko and Islay make it through as top 3 for the finals.
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Clay doing what he does so well... disappearing! |
In the mens its Clay and Dane who
dominate with some sweet rides and mystery’s with Thomas not far
behind in 3rd place.
Day 3 – Quarter and Semi Final
time
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Everyones having fun during the Ladies Semi Finals |
Day 3
and its quarter and semi finals time. The mens quarters is a really
hard cut. 20 paddlers all capable of throwing 1,000 point + rides all
battling for the top 10 spot. Its another day of super exciting
boating and in the end its Me, Pring, Bren and Brandon from Team GB
who make it through the
semi final cut.
Day 4 – The Day of REST!
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No water at Pigeon = busy day on the Green |
Friday comes and
we have a day off! Because the river is completely dam release
dependant and the Dams not scheduled to release today everyone has a
day off. Loads of people head out to paddle at NOC and on the Green
river. I opt to stay at Pigeon and have a chilled out day. Mid
afternoon and theres excitement at the Pigeon camp. They have just
released the dam so we do have water. Everyone who's left jumps on
for some last minute practice. I chill for a bit then do 1 freestyle
ride followed by a mystery session. SteveO helps me figure out the
spot and i'm rewarded by some sweet 10 second rides.
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ICF Judge Mark Sheppard enjoys the chance to get out of the judges stand and onto the water |
Late that evening
Clay and Islay return from the Green. Unfortunately Clays injured. He
took a massive hit to his shoulder on one of the big 3 drops on this
classic american creek and has damaged his AC joint. Luckily its not
broken but he's in a lot of pain.
Day 5 - Finals
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Claire O tears it up in the squirt finals
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Finals day comes
and we are kicking off the day with the squirt finals. I'm super
excited to throw down a decent mystery during the event. First two
rides I miss the head under mystery but throw down some sweet flat
water routines using my stick (paddle). Then for my final ride
'victory lap', as I have already done enough to win, I switch to hand
paddles. I set myself up in the eddy and wait for the seam to appear.
Theres nothing there, I sit and wait and then see it approaching,
rolling down the eddy line. I go, hit it and sink. The water lower
today so I have to work hard to keep the boat down and make it spin.
I'm under, i'm under, i'm under, i'm out of breath! I resurface throw
an exit kickflip and then take a gasp of air and hear the spectators
erupt with cheers. I have still got loads of time left so I then
throw down a mix of flat water freestyle squirt tricks.
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Motoko dropping deep into the mystery seam |
Islay and Motoko
also throw down some great squirt rides and mysterys taking the 2nd
(Motoko) and 3rd (Islay) place. A nice start to the finals
day here at Pigeon. Next up its the
mens. Clay paddles with only 1 hand! And its another super impressive
display of flat water freestyle and squirt boating tricks.
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The guys line up in the eddy ready to compete |
Danes
really maximises on the bonuses on the score sheet throwing down some
super impressive squirt routines combined with a nice mystery taking
1
st place. Clay somehow pulls out a huge 700+ point run
using just 1 hand finishing in 2
nd and Bartosh wins the
flat water freestyle throw down against Thomas and Quim to take the
3
rd place spot.
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Quim throwing some massive flat water freestyle tricks
|
Quickly everything
then moves back to the top feature for the freestyle finals. Junior
women start us off followed by the OC1. To say that this is one of
the best demonstrations by these paddlers of how far this sport has
come is an understatement. All the paddlers lay own some huge rides
with Mcnastys, Space Godzillas, Helixs and Loops not only being
scored by the Junior Women but also the OC1. Nuria takes her 2
nd
World Cup win and Seth shows extraordinary canoe skills to take the
OC1 win.
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It not often we see air under an inverted OC1
|
Then its time for
the flying Bren. He has some great competition in the Junior mens
from Hunter and the other young paddlers but Bren is on fire at the
moment and flys during his rides laying down some massive combos
leaving even the judges looking shocked cruising straight into the
Gold medal spot.
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Bren effortlessly throws down some of the hardest moves in the sport to take the junior win
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After Brens victory rides its the C1. Another
impressive battle between some World Class Canoe paddlers. Its not
surprise as World Champion Dane Jackson takes the win in his 2
nd
of 3 finals of the day.
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Dane makes C1 look far to easy in the finals |
Then i'm back on
for the women's finals. I'm super excited to paddle the hole again
and try and lay down a complex, hard, high scoring run. The line up
in the eddy is impressive, its the same as the World Championships
final results last year which really shows the high standard here at
these events. My first ride is Entry, McNasty, Loop, Space Godzilla,
Felix, Space Godzilla, McNasty, Split, Phoneix. Its a super fun run.
I don't score everything but get over 580 points which is enough to
take the win. Emily, Ruth, Nina and Hayley are also throwing down
some massive runs and Emily takes Silver with Nina getting a great
second ride to secure the Bronze.
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Claire O sets up for a phoenix monkey during the ladies finals |
The action on the
water comes to a final peak in the senior mens finals. Impressive,
fast, dynamic, insane... these words don't even given full credit to
the standard of rides being laid down in these runs. The guys all
fly. Each using slightly different techniques and routines they try
and up their scores to take the win. In the end its the powerhouse
from Slovakia Peter Chonka that takes the Gold, his second World Cup
win, with a massive 1,416 point run!!! Close on his tail were Dane
and Quim and not far behind them where Stephen and Pring.
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Csonka celebrates his 2nd World Cup win
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In keeping with
the lovely, fun, all inclusive style of the event, the Pigeon World
Cup event comes to an end with the awards ceremony. Each athlete is
lead up to the podium by a local youngster who awards them with their
medal whilst other local kids raised their national flag. A fitting
finish to another great event.
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Bren takes a well earned Gold medal home in the Jnr Mens
|
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Claire O celebrating the ladies win with Emily and Nina |
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Islay celebrates winning her first ICF medal |
Thank you once
again to everyone involved in every aspect of this World Cup
competition, especially the local raft guides. It is incredible to
think that a year ago this feature did not exist. This whole event
was made possible by the hard work, determination and drive of a few
local raft guides who had a vision for their river and took the time
to hand build the feature by moving hundreds of rocks.
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KC Jackson practises climbing onto the podium.
Its not going to be long until this is a regular scene ;o) |
Nice work...Thank
you!
Thank you to James Bebbington & Katya (RiverZoo.com), Philip Robert, Jackson Kayak, Nuria Fontane Maso and others for the great photos