End of the World Championships

Saturday was sprint prelmins.  My first run was pretty good with only a minor mistake at the top, which placed me 43rd before my second run, so a little better than at classic.  For my second run I had a much better line at the top, but a took too much of an eddy and almost spun out and that took a little time to correct.  Fortunately that run was only about 0.5 sec slower than my first run so it wasn't too costly and I still retained 43rd.
Sunday was sprint finals followed by team sprints.  Since only the top 15 are taken for the finals I would not be racing. However Ben Oakley, a britsh team member that I met when we paddled at 70cumecs slipped in the 15th spot when Tomas Slovak was disqualified for having and underweight boat.  Ben was off first and looked really smooth with no big mistakes, and as the other competitors took their runs, Ben's time remained up there.  Only Tobias Bong and Nejc beat him so he ended up with a bronze medal, pretty cool stuff.
For out team race our only goal was to finish no matter how ugly. The first run was decent managed to stay together with out any major screw ups. Second run wasn't so lucky, I was pushed way far left at the top and had to work very hard to get back. And Jeremy almost spun out, but luckily Emmanuel was able to push his bow to keep him going down stream. So all in all we finished and it was a pretty fun time.  As I got out of my boat at the finish a sudden feeling of saddness washed over me as a realized that would be the last time I would get the paddle the might Isere river, or even my race boat for at least the next 3 or 4 months.

Spectators for wildwater sure was nice for once