Women’s K1 Prelims in #Thun
By James McBeath • Sep 3rd, 2009 • Category: 2009 World Freestyle Championships, Feature Story
The late day sprinkles threatened to come early this fine morning, but the sun won out as the Women took to the wave in Thun. Every heat list that was announced seemed like it was THE heat to beat. All of them seemed to be dotted with stars and veterans of freestyle. Some amazingly classic names like Marianne Saether, Jessie Stone, Tanya Faux etc. were all included in the mix with newcommers and rising stars making each round super competitive. Everyone was paddling off of the energy and the shere competitive aura of the others in the eddy. It was awesome!
The day started out with a tough wave. At the start it truely didn’t look like the wave was being nice at all. Runs under 100 left the first heat baffled when Fiona Jarvie of Wales (GBR) showed up with game face on! A couple of rides later and a flurry of round houses and blunts she broke the 100 point ride mark and never looked back. In the next heat Martina Wegman of NLD brought the air into play with a donkey flip… pushing towards a 200+ score. Midway through the competition in stepped Marianne Saether. Everyone twittering out there stopped to notice her rides … Marianne kicked in a solid ride including the most air of the day to date… Donkey Flip, Helix, huge blunts taking her combined total to 528… solidly ahead of all the rides so far.
The real drama began with good friends Ruth Gordon of Canada and Tanya Faux of Australia showing up in the eddy for warm up. Ohhhhh baby, these ladies really work off of each other’s competitive energy… smiles all around they took the wave to even higher levels. Tanya throwing the gauntlet down with her first ride of just under 300. Along came Ruth with a tight combination of Donkey Flip, back stabs, spins and a huge blunt or two… 400 point ride. ITS ON! Ruth ended with 713 and Tanya at 500 in third behind Saether at this point in the comp… with A couple heats to come and Emily Jackson in the eddy for her warm up… you can SEE the US flags wavin’!
The anticipation of Emily’s rides was temporarily put on hold with a light first ride, but got the crowd on their feet with an amazing second ride of around the 400 area and a final ride that helped her into second spot for the day. Jessie Stone, one of the sports TRUE ambassadors brought in a great story line as she chipped her way into 5th over all with solid performances… showing that she will ALWAYS be a threat.
1 11 Gordon Ruth 713,333 Prelim CAN
2 90 Jackson Emily 601,667 Prelim USA
3 61 SAETHER MARIANN 528,333 Prelim NOR
4 12 Faux Tanya 500,000 Prelim AUS
5 67 Stone Jessie 365,000 Prelim USA
6 140 Wegman Martina 355,000 Prelim NLD
7 15 McDonald Carly 281,667 Prelim CAN
8 167 Kulkova Ekaterina 240,000 Prelim RUS
9 13 Jarvie Fiona 235,000 Prelim GBR
10 106 Motoko Ishida 205,000 Prelim JPN
11 96 Mumu Tani 171,667 Prelim JPN
12 120 Suurseppä Paula 168,333 Prelim FIN
13 27 Wall Emily 150,000 Prelim GBR
14 113 Lindgren Maria 146,667 Prelim SWE
15 177 Savelyeva Evgenia 140,000 Prelim RUS
16 103 Schlott Ingrid 136,667 Prelim GER
17 210 Vackova Hana 120,000 Prelim CZE
18 94 Gautier Dominique 105,000 Prelim CAN
19 6 Halasova Nina 103,333 Prelim SVK
20 54 Campbell Elaine 103,333 Prelim USA
21 70 Kaiser Jutta 100,000 Prelim GER
22 211 Borovickova Lenka 96,667 Prelim CZE
23 99 Yoshiko Suematsu 93,333 Prelim JPN
24 204 McGriskin Siobhan 85,000 Prelim IRE
25 75 DEVILLEZ Marlene 83,333 Prelim FRA
26 169 Dobrzhitskaya Maria 78,333 Prelim RUS
27 19 Marchand Annie Pier 75,000 Prelim CAN
28 69 Levknecht Adriene 66,667 Prelim USA
29 81 Erguin Jurdana 61,667 Prelim ESP
30 182 O’Donnell Sinead 60,000 Prelim IRE
31 82 Juanmarti Gemma 60,000 Prelim ESP
32 79 GARCIA RIBERAYGU 53,333 Prelim AND
33 125 Vänskä-Westgarth Satu 53,333 Prelim FIN
34 109 Migdauova Katerina 50,000 Prelim CZE
35 206 BERTRAND VALERIE 50,000 Prelim NOR
36 198 LEHNER Gudrun 43,333 Prelim AUT
37 33 Davies Lowri 30,000 Prelim GBR
38 119 Kuronen Jonna 20,000 Prelim FIN
39 239 Sebelin Sandra 20,000 Prelim GER
40 195 SOURROUILLE Pauline 18,333 Prelim FRA
41 188 Kilbridge Jenny 10,000 Prelim IRE
42 23 Merembe Prossy 0,000 Prelim UGA
43 146 Sunuwar Rai Susmita 0,000 Prelim NEP
James McBeath is known for having a unique place in whitewater. The founder of Kayak Futaleufu and a former partner in Liquid Skills, James (aka "Pollo") has been around the paddling world for many a year. James currently is the director of World Kayak in hopes of aiding a significant growth through community activity world wide!
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