Inside the 2015 Freestyle Worlds With EJ – Ep8, Semi Finals All Classes

Read Eric « Ej » Jackson instant feedbacks as he reports ‘Live from the River bank’ at the 2015 Kayak Freestyle World Championships. You will read below about the Men, Women, C1, K1 men & Women Junior Semi finals. Finals to be held on Sept 5th.

Senior Men’s Semi-Finals- Cut from 10 to 5

The men were on fire today and did not disappoint! It started with Quim, the 10th place qualifier for this round. He went out on the wave and threw down in a big way, getting over 1200 points on his first ride and it was GAME ON for the men. Sam Ward, Joel Kowalski, and Devin Scott all got over 1,000 points on their rides and Caleb Grady at 980- all amazing rides. Ander with 751 from Spain was the lowest scoring paddler in Semi-finals and that is still a great ride!

The guys who made it also had great rides, but just plain better! Coming in 5th place was Bren Orton with 1165 with some big moves right out of the gate. His start is always spectacular! Matt Dumoulin threw two good rides, but his best one had a Back Pan Am that FLEW so high it was unreal! He ended up on the high end of the 1,100’s to take 4th place. Dane had two amazing rides in a row- 1406 and 1403… throwing his routine he got 1500+ point rides in prelims, but missing his flash-back on both rides to lower his score. Nick, however, killed it on his first ride with a 1500+ point ride to have the lead and keep it to the end!

Canada, USA, Spain, France, and England- a first for having 5 countries in the finals for the men! Tomorrows Finals will be amazing!

Nick Troutman- Canada- 1510
Dane Jackson- USA- 1406
Quim Fontane- Spain- 1206
Mathieu Dumoulin- France- 1193
Brendon Orton- England- 1165
Sam Ward- Uganda- 1110
Devin Scott- Canada-1086
Joel Kowalski- Canada- 1010
Kalob Grady- Canada- 980
Ander De Miguel Aranaz- 751

French stud Matt Dumoulin threw some of the most impressive moves during the semis! ©kayaksession.com / P. Holcombe

Womens’ Semi- Finals ( Cut from 10 to 5) – Craziness and whoas….

OK, so there are always upsets, but watching the women’s semi-finals was a little stressful. In the first heat current World Champion- Claire Ohara flushed on her first ride with only a blunt, but came back with a 280 on her second ride, which was not a strong score, but still managed to beat out the other 4 girls in her heat. Katie Kowalski threw some good moves, but never got her back moves going and failed to get up far in the 200’s and ended up third after the first heat with a 205. Katrina Kulkova pulled off a solid ride to secure second place in the first heat with a 243.

In the top heat we had Rowan Stuart lead off with a 191 but couldn’t get her ride like she did in prelims to put her in 5th during that round. Hitomi from Japan had a solid first ride with 283, guaranteeing her a spot on first rides. Emily Jackson also got a 291 putting her in 1st place after her first ride and securing her spot. One second rides, Emily Ward, from Uganda, threw down an awesome ride of 320 points and took over the lead… This is where it ended up!!

Emily Ward- Uganda- 320
Emily Jackson- USA- 291
Hitomi Takaku- USA- 283
Claire Ohara- England- 266
Ekaterina Kulkova- Russia- 243
Katie Kowalski- Canada- 205
Rowan Stuart- USA- 191
Nuria Fontane- Spain- 125
Adrienne Levknecht- USA- 70
Marlene Devillez- France- 65

Hitomi Takaku did not have to stress too long to know she would make it in the finals ©kayaksession.com / P. Holcombe

C1 Semi-Finals, Cut from 10 to 5

It was a repeat of the prelims in that everyone in the top heat made it and the top 2 are the same as the prelims… Scores were strong in the final heat. Winning the first heat was Brad Mcmillian from the USA but his score was only 288 which would be hard to make the finals with… Jordan Poffenberger threw two good rides, but still not the Jordan we are used to seeing win events yet. We hope he’ll reach his potential during the finals tomorrow, as he did make the 5th spot with 436 points. Seth Chappelle has sweet rides with a 460 and a 326!! Both rides would make the finals! If this were a round where both rides counted, he would have been ranked even higher!

The big story was Zach Zwanenburg winning after his first ride with a 560 and then having to wait to see if Dane Jackson could beat his score. Dane didn’t disappoint with a huge scoring second ride, the final ride of the C1s with a 718 point ride to win both prelims and semi-finals. There were lots of good moves in this round, but only a few athletes that put entire rides together. Sebastien from France had a wonder ride also, to take third place!!!

Dane Jackson- USA- 718
Zach Zwanenburg- Canada- 560
Sebastiene Devred- France- 483
Seth Chapelle USA- 460
Jordan Poffenberger- USA- 436
Brad McMillian- USA- 288
Vincent Dupont- Canada- 286
Chris McDermott- Canada- 268
Lukas Cervinka- Czech- 255
James Ibbotson- England-

Dane Jackson will compete in the finals in both C1 and K1. ©kayaksession.com / P. Holcombe

Junior Men’s Semi-Finals!! Cut from 10 to 5

The First heat of Junior men started off with a bang with Fabien Lanao from France nailing a 491 point ride. However it looked like there was some nerves going on as the highest score was mostly in the 300’s for anyone else except Charlie Brackpole from England who got 403.

However, the second rides did get better with Charlie Brackpole nailing a 500+ point ride! Caito from the USA was primed for a big ride with a beautiful start, but had a quick flush on both rides and would have to watch and see what the rest of the field did with just under 300 points. Hayden Vorhees, who could also make the finals, flushed early two times and couldn’t get over the 300 point mark and would get last in the heat, but still looked awesome when he was on the wave. First heat had two people who might make the next round- Fabien and Charlie.

In the second and top paddler heat Hugo Anthony started off with a bang with a 630 point ride to set the pace and then Hugo Scott Answered back with a 506 point ride to put him in the running as well. Alec Vorhees threw a 425 point ride which was not expected to be finals material. He threw 650 points worth of moves but didn’t score a couple of them. As the most consistent paddler in practice, he was not yet showing that in competition. Quinton Kennedy and Kalem Kennedy, two brothers from Canada, locals, were ready to rock and seemed super fired up! Each of them had 300 point first rides, leaving their finals chances up to second rides. We all expected to see one or both of them in the finals but they both came short with Kalem at 410 and Quentin at 356, a bummer for Team Canada as no Canadian’s made the top 5 and they had a really strong team. Alec Vorhees threw his second ride like he had something to prove, and came out on top, which is where he could stay with his skill set and competition experience; I hope I right as he got the Bronze medal in the last worlds and this is his last one as a junior…

The Finals are set and it will be an amazing finals with three British, one French, and One American competing.

The top 5 finalist are:

Alec Vorhees- USA- 631
Anthony Hugo- England- 630
Charlie Brackpole- England- 550
Hugo Scott- England- 506
Fabien Lanao- France- 491

Not making the cut: 6. Kalem Kennedy- Canada- 410, 7. Quinton Kennedy- Canada- 356, 8. Raphael Scheu- Germany- 330, 9. Caito Roemer- USA- 296, 10. Hayden Vorhees- USA- 246

Alec Vorhees threw when it mattered and with a solid second run seciured a spot in the finals ©kayaksession.com / P. Holcombe

Junior Women’s Semi-Finals- Cut from 10 to 5

We have our 5 Finalists for the Junior Women’s Class! Two heats of women competed, each one trying to make the top 5. This class consists of many newer boaters, and the scores are typically not very high, but the challenge for each paddler remains the same, to paddle their best and hope that it will be 5th place or higher…

Out of the 10 paddlers we had 5 of them over 30 points and 9 of the ladies scored points in this round. Unfortunately none of the Canadian Team members made the final 5, with Emily Zwanenburg just missing the finals coming in 6th place with 28 points.

The top 5 finalist are:

Sage Donnelly- USA- 185 points (1 ride)
Sofie McPeak- England- 81.67 points
Darby McAdams- United States- 71.67
Kira Carreto Tejedo, Spain- 35
Mirela Serres Segarra- Spain- 33.33

Sage Donnelly had two winning rides throwing aerial front and back blunts and a Felix on her second ride as well! She is clearly the girl to beat here at this World Championships. winning two rounds already! Two Spanish, Two Americans, and one British for finals!!