Wednesday 11th October was the third day of the ICF Freestyle World Championships, and saw the K1 men’s prelims and the OC1 medals.
OC1 kicked the day off, a discipline that takes the sport back to its origins of open canoe paddling. In here Britain had two representatives, Adam Ramadan and Connor Proud. Adam was the first up, looking to book his spot in the top five who progressed through to the afternoon's final. From his first ride Adam started clocking up the points, completing a spin and shuvit, getting him 15 points. Unfortunately, it was just shy of the total needed to make the top five, and he placed 6th. Connor followed him down, keen to show off his OC1 skills. Connor was super unfortunate and caught a bubble of water each time that saw him miss the feature, finishing in 7th place.
K1 men came next, with five members of the GB team representing. The first of the British paddlers was Nick Beavis, a big wave specialist turning his hand to competition. Nick's wave skills really shone through, but some unlucky flushes saw him finish in 31st position, missing out on the top 20 going through to the quarter finals. Nathan was in the heat following, making his world championships debut. Despite hitting some of the biggest tricks of the day, earning some huge bonus points, it wasn't quite Nathan's day as he narrowly missed out in 22nd place.
I was really happy to even make the GB team this year, so being able to compete with some of the worlds best was an amazing experience. And it was awesome to get such a huge back panam in front of everyone
– Nathan Hefford
GB team veteran, Alan Ward, was in the penultimate heat. Looking to show his experience on Hurley wave, Alan went out hard. Throwing some of the snappiest airscrews and an impressive blunt mcnasty, Alan secured a quarter final spot with style, in 5th place.
It wasn't quite the rides or scores i was hoping for, but i'm over the moon with the position. Lots more still to come in the next round
– Alan Ward
The final heat had the last two British paddlers, Harry Price and Gav Barker. Being in the last 10 to go gave them the advantage of knowing what they needed to do to make the cut. Gav was looking to show off his explosive style that he has become known for, but it wasn't his day. Some very unlucky flushes meant he ended up in 27th position. Finally, it was Harry Price that was hunting for one of the quarter place. An early flush on run one put the pressure on his second two rides. No stranger to pressure, Harry turned on the skill, racking up enough points to make it into the quarter finals in 11th place.
Rounding off the day was the OC1 finals. Despite no British interest in the final, it was a great watch, with defending world champion Philip Josef, two time world champion Jordan Poffenberger, and current C1 world champion Landon Miller in the mix. A huge panam on his last ride secured the gold medal for Landon Miller of the USA.
Up tomorrow is the junior K1's, starting with the women then the men. Stay up to date with the action on the ICF website.