Friday the 13th, unlucky for some but great for others as the juniors took to the water for their semi finals and finals. And the senior K1 men and women were whittled down to 10 a piece in the quarter finals.
The junior women started the day off with their semi final, with 10 paddlers being cut to five for the afternoons final. Up in this was GB's Sienna Edwards and Niamh Macken. Sienna was first on as she had qualified through to this round in 8th place. She kept her steady composed style that had got her this far, gracefully spinning the boat in all directions to get some points. In the end it was 10th place for Sienna, very respectable for her international debut. Not far behind her was Niamh, looking to emulate the performance that got her a silver medal at last year’s world championships. Unfortunately, Niamh caught an unlucky surge and missed the wave on her first ride. Run two had all the pressure on it as it was time for her to perform. Despite throwing the boat around and catching some air, the points were only enough for 6th place, and just missing out on the final.
The junior men followed, with both Timmy Hill and Jools Gardener in the mix, Jools qualifying in first place. Timmy laid down a very controlled first ride, doing enough to secure his finals place. Last to go was Jools, able to see the exact score he needed to progress through. He came out with all guns blazing, looking to repeat his prelims performance. Alas, this turned out to be a risky tactic that didn't pay off. His big moves landed heavy on each run, resulting in early flushes. It was to be an 8th place finish for Jools, and an end to his world championships.
Senior women’s quarter finals came next, with an impressive five GB women making it through. Tamsyn McConchie and Emma Witherford were in the first round of women. Sadly, it wasn't Emma's day, as she flushed off the feature early in two of her three rides, placing her 20th overall. Tamsyn managed to retain the feature a little longer, giving her time to start putting points on the board and try for a third medal of the championships. Throwing everything at her runs, she managed to put points on the board for 12th place, missing out on the semi finals.
Dino Rock, Heidi Walsh, and Ottie Robinshon-Shaw came in the second round. Dino showed her wave experience, throwing some mightily impressive moves. 11th place was where she finished up on her international debut, one place off the semi final. Heidi left it until her third and final ride to clock up the points needed to make the top 10. It was the last 15 seconds of that ride where she found her rhythm, and ticked off a number of tricks to push herself up into 6th place, and into the semi final. Last up was defending world champion Ottie. Putting down the two highest rides of the round, Ottie showed yet again why she has so many world champion titles under her belt, booking her spot in the semi final by winning the semi final.
The men followed them on, with Harry Price and Alan Ward flying the flag for Great Britain. Harry was looking to put his smooth style to work, linking moves together to maximise his points. He managed to find his groove in his second run, but caught edges on his other two runs. With such a high standard of paddling on show, this meant that he missed the cut for semi finals, finishing in 14th position. Alan, looking to get his first world Championship medal since his 2005 junior gold, was up next. He showed that the old boy still has life in him, putting down three solid runs that built him a score big enough for 7th. That put him through to the semi finals.
Junior women’s finals came next, unfortunately with no British interest. It was a great battle between Makinley Kate Hargrove of the USA and Sophie Gilfallan of Canada. Ultimately the local paddler Mackinley Kate took the win with an impressive first ride.
Timmy Hill finished the day off in the junior men's K1 finals. Up against defending world champion Tim Rees of Germany, it was going to be a big final. Timmy kept everyone on the edge of their seats, leaving his best run until his last. Performing under the pressure of knowing what he needed to do, Timmy put together a run that moved him from fourth place up to third, and onto the podium.
Saturday is the last day of the event, with the semi finals and finals of the senior K1's. Keep up to date with the action on the ICF website.