World Cup Freestyle Squirt Finals

The day started out with two venues busy.  At the top of the Caney Fork run, at the outrun of the dam was host to the men’s and women’s squirt finals.  The OC1 and C1 event was simultaneously being hosted on the main feature down river.  The audience literally hung over the venue from the bridge hundred feet up.  The heat for men’s included Clay, Dane, Jeremy and Tomaz Czaplicki from Poland.  The eddyline was great, water deep and the feature bonus included eddy work and the rocks along the shore.  All men were in the traditional squirt boats save Tomaz who was in a freestyle boat.  Those in freestyle boats had the advantage of doing ends but missed out on the mystery multiplier and exit bonuses.  Tended to even the system.

The men’s runs were a struggle to enter the run with a mystery move or feature bonus move.  Clay’s second ride changed the day with a disturbing 20 second mystery move who’s down time literally spooked the judges… “where the heck is he… KEEP COUNTING!”  Jeremy Laucks changed things up by adding a feature bonus move at the start of his run and ended in a flurry of moves.  Dane combined a quick mystery move with his quick flatwater tricks enabling him to keep up with Clay, but with Clay’s 20 second downtime in the way neither Jeremy nor Dane were able to surpass Clay to first place.  Tomaz kept the judges and scribes busy with the flatwater moves, but without the bonus for mystery again it was hard for him to catch up to the multiplier! Both top placers in Murky Water kayaks!

Final Results Men’s Squirt

1. Clay Wright – 1566 points
2. Dane Jackson – 890
3. Tomaz Czaplicki – 508
4. Jeremy Laucks – 374

The women hit the eddy line with World Champ Claire O’hara and Motoko from Japan, both always in the hunt for squirt glory and both in traditional squirt boats.  The balance of the field were in playboats, again eliminating the mystery and exit factors.  Claire and Motoko were the class of the field with a flurry of moves each, some good downtime adding to their score and were neck and neck through out the morning.  By the third ride, Claire and Motoko pulled away from the field of playboaters and ran the gammet of squirt moves.  Claire came through with 973 points closely followed by Motoko at 805 and Nuria in third with a distant 160.

1. Claire O’hara – 973
2. Motoko – 805
3. Nuria – 160
4. Zofia – 142.5
5. Isabella – 90

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mqMV_t77pA[/youtube]