Day 6...The Final Cut
By Ken Whiting and Kevin Varette
June 30, 2001

It is a smokin' hot day in Sort and most of us are thankful that at least some of the day's events are being held after dark because the sun is merciless!

The K-1 Junior Men's and the K-1 Women's semifinal rounds took place this morning, with the field of 10 athletes in both classes getting cut to 5 for tomorrow's final elimination rounds. The pressure was on each paddler to go out and rip it up in the juicy rodeo hole, with their best ride out of two counting as their semifinal score. This format encourages a strategy of aggressiveness as opposed to being conservative, because athletes know they need a high score to make the cut and they are allowed to have one goof-up. The result is generally an exciting throw-down with no holds barred and today was no exception. With this few paddlers left in the competition, it is impossible for each round to end with out upsets and this morning some top paddlers were eliminated from the chase. In the Women's class, Canada's Julie Dion (2000 Pre-World Champion and 1999 World's Silver Medallist), Tiffany Manchester (2001 Canadian National Champion) and Lisa Beckstead, along with the USA's Brooke Winger (1999 World's Bronze Medallist) didn't make the cut. Impressive performances were put on by USA's Erica Mitchell, Tanya Shuman and Whitney Lonsdale, the UK's Deb Pinniger (1999 World Champion) and Canada's Anna Levesque. In the Junior Men's class, the USA's Marlow Long and Sean Brabant and the UK's Mark Berbank (1999 World Champion) were all top contenders who also missed the cut to 5. The USA's Calef Latorney, Andre Spino-Smith, Jesse Murphy and Dustin Urban, along with the local hero Oriol Colome, did what they had to do to move one step closer to World Champion status. Please see Results List for final placings in both Women's and Junior Men's.

This afternoon saw the crowning of the 2001 World Squirtboating Champions at the wave and eddy line upstream from the freestyle hole. The field in the Men's class was cut from 16 down to 5 finalists and the Women's class was cut from 6 down to 3, with an impressive combination of eddy line manoeuvres and down time off the wave. The finals were elimination format, with the lowest score being dropped each time the athletes had a ride. In the end, the Men's competition came down to Canada's Brendan Mark and the USA's Andy Beddingfield. Their final ride ended in a crowd-silencing tie, forcing a second sudden death performance. Andy ended up one point ahead of Brendan with an incredible performance on the eddy line, but Brendan had the longest down time of the event. Good show guys!!

The Women's class was just as exciting, with Japan's Motoko, Canada's Lisa Beckstead and USA's Brooke Winger battling for the medals. Motoko had dominated throughout the competition, but ended up with the bronze after failing to hit her down time in the first elimination ride. In the end, Lisa Beckstead earned herself a silver medal and Brooke took the gold. This makes Andy and Brooke repeat gold medallists, as both won the 1999 World's in New Zealand - nice work Brooke and Andy!!!

The spotlight will be on the men tonight as they take centre stage at what is expected to be a huge party down at the hole. Saturday night in Sort means business!! The Men's K-1 semifinal kicks off at 10:00pm Spanish time, with the 15 remaining competitors being given 2 rides to show their stuff and come up with one score big enough to make the nasty cut to 5 for tomorrow's finals. Kayak International will have complete coverage as the results come in. Good luck to all the comptetors!!

Points of Interest:
  • Team Captains from the 25 countries in attendance here at the 2001 World's met with the Vice President of the International Canoe Federation on Thursday night. He was here to get a feel for the interest level of the freestyle community in joining the ICF. The ICF is the body which governs sports like Slalom, Downriver and Sprint racing. They organize the way events are run, the way teams are chosen and the way rules are developed and enforced. They do not have a great reputation for being innovative or flexible and were met by a large degree of hesitation from the Team Captains. The one major interest was in the potential for more central funding for athletes, especially in the smaller European countries where the markets are not big enough to support athletes like they can in North America. Talks will continue and it is likely that an ICF representative will be joining freestyle meetings for years to come. Nothing will be happening in the near future.
  • A hot new kayak magazine has hit the press and was introduced last night by the publisher, Joel Doux and chief editor, Phillipe Doux. "Kayak Session" is a classy, image-driven production that is devoted to whitewater kayaking. The


OFFICIAL RESULTS FOR THE DAY (care of the Spanish scoring system):
WOMENS K1 SEMIFINALS
JR MENS K1 SEMIFINALS
MENS K1 SEMIFINALS (videos to come)


Competition Day 4 Videos:
Brooke Winger, US Womens Squirt (1.4 MB)
Lisa Beckstead, Can Womens Squirt (1.6 MB)
Motoko Ishida, JPN Womens Squirt (2.1 MB)

Andy Bedingfield, US mens Squirt
Brendan Mark, Can mens Squirt
Tom McKee, US mens Squirt
James Roddick, Can mens Squirt
Lars Romeskie mens Squirt

Calef Letourney, US JR mens
Jesse Murphy, US JR mens
Mark Birkbeck, GB JR mens
Sean Brabent, US JR mens

Erica Mitchell, US Womens K1
Deb Pinneger, GB Womens K1
Tanya Shuman, US Womens K1
Anna Levesque CAN, Womens K1
Tiffany Manchester Can, Womens K1
Back to Worlds Coverage



EJ NO HANDS
(2.5 MB)

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