Had a blinder! After a nervous warm up and a tension packed sit around waiting for the start, I finally got to race. The top half is the trickiest, and in training I have found it easy to 'blow up' that is, to enter the Danger Zone (from which there is no return). This time I controlled myself- measured paddling on the faces of the waves, paddle in the fast current pulling strongly but not quickly- and blow me down it worked! I ended up 17th- 32 seconds after my pursuer (who won) and while not my highest result (I got a 14th 12 years ago) this was probably my closest margin percentage wise. (We're a bit obsessed with percentages).
Only two pics from the warm up run now, but will scavenge around and get more for later...
Results: http://tonimonterde.com/LiveMsportsPro.html
I think the results on that webpage don't include Mariano Bifano at 10th and should read as follows:
Me- 17th
Stew 18th
Ben 20th
Foo 24rd
A very strong showing from Australia. In 1996 I was the best Australian at 24th... the previous worlds our best result was 29th. (I was forty-something- those were the days)
France's Loic Vynisale won the event (chasing down me), with Achim Overbeck second and Necj (unspellable) from Slovenia third. The Czechs look to be the strongest team for the teams event, filling out most of the rest of the top ten- they will be a force to be reckoned with. I reckon I'm the happiest 17th place ever.
It's the girls' turn tomorrow. We'll try to give them some of the same great support they've shown us, but that will be hard as they've set a high standard.
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