This morning the Junior Women Kayakers
competed for only 2 spots on the US Team and it was hotly
contested! The format for the final cut from 5 girls to 2
was 3 rides, 2 count. I was nervous watching Emily compete,
especially when she first entered the wave and then just sat
there surfing back and forth looking like she didn’t
know what to do….then she cut loose in her 2 Fun and
started spinning, doing back roundhouses, and blunts to the
buzzer, cool! She had three solid rides. Hannah Farrar did
the best blunt of the competition in her second ride, and
had three solid rides too. Brooke Bevin had two good rides
out of her three as well, making it hard to know who was going
to win…
Emily Jackson wins US Team Trials at 14
with a score of 219 points. I can’t tell you how fun
it was to see! She was both relieved, happy, and told me that
she threw up from being so nervous. It was unbelievable to
watch her compete and see that her skill level in action,
her awareness of where she is on the water and her ability
to do the moves. She looked quite relaxed to me when paddling,
then looked nervous each time she finished her rides, when
she started thinking… “Was that good enough?,
Did I get that blunt?” etc. etc.
Hannah got second with 198 points and had
three solid rides. I was very impressed with her paddling.
Between Hannah and Emily, the USA has a great shot at winning
the world championships in January in Australia in the junior
women’s class!
Dane paddled this morning also in the Junior
boys class. Todd Baker made the show throwing tons of great
stuff, including his signature tall lefty blunts. He was stand
alone followed by Dan Simenc (Skippy) who had lots of great
moves and kept the boat moving on two of his rides. Joel Kowalski
from Canada was third and did really well on two of his rides.
Billy was next with solid rides across the board, and finally,
Dane came in 5th, making the cut. Dane’s first ride
was terrible flushing off the wave two times and getting almost
no points. He second ride was pretty good, and then he hammered
it home with an awesome high scoring third ride! His third
ride was fun to watch! The Junior boys will go again tomorrow-
the top 9 made the cut for finals. Tomorrow the junior boys
will cut from 9 to 3, and the top three will be on the USA
Junior Men’s Team. Oh boy, I am getting a shot of adreline
just typing this! I think my heart rate just jumped from 55
to 100 when I pictured little Dane going against the top juniors
of the USA. I need to save my adrenaline for my rides which
will be in about 90 minutes! I need to go from 40 men to top
20. It isn’t a hard cut for me, but that is the scary
part- got to keep the eye on the number one spot and be disappointed
with second in each round until the team- then it is time
to relax. I compete best this way.
Time to go- I just came back to the RV
to eat lunch and get away from the event for an hour to recharge
after watching the kids and the women. I am in heat 4 of the
men.
I think I will go watch some of the men’s
heats to get a feel for it.
:) EJ
p.s. watch for photos in the next articles-
I am taking the camera to the event (which is like being in
an amphitheater, full of people, music, TV, and athletes)
