2003 World Freestyle Kayak Championships – Report 25, May 28

Competition Day 3 – Men’s Kayak Prelims Heats, 1 – 10

The word for today was NERVES! Today was an incredible day of great paddling mixed with cold feet. Andrew Holcomb started off today first and had a terrible first ride. He said after that he just "froze and forgot where he was and what to do". That didn´t last long for the "ice man" though as his amnesia went away and he rocked the hole putting him in first place and staying there for the next thirty men to go. Billy Harris from Canada, did the exact same thing, blew his first ride, then got himself back on the horse for a rocking second ride. Jay Kincaid, showed why, although this is his first worlds, he is one of the best. He had to rides that would likely put him into finals without the second one! (premlims is two rides added together). Jay stayed in first for a long time but Tyler Curtis paddled to just 4 points behind Andrew putting him in third with two solid rides. Finally in the last heat of the day, after a super low first run, Brendan Mark had the biggest ride of the day getting over 300 points in one ride, to Jay´s 200. So Brendan set a new standard for the men on the last ride of the day!

Tomorrow there are four heats (40 people) left to see what 35 people will make it. The last few heats are stacked with paddlers that can pull out the plug and raise the bar for sure. I am guessing that 130 points is the bubble. So anybody sitting in that position will be lacking in sleep tonight! I go last tomorrow (perk of being the reigning world champion) so I will know what kind of score I need to make it. However, I am not shooting for 35th place, of course, so I will want to know the score needed to win prelims.