WORDS:
JAMES ‘IBBO’ IBBOTSON

Photos: Jeff Bloor &
Connor Proud

Bio

James or ‘Ibbo’ is a kayak freestyle athlete representing Great Britain at international competitions. He has many years experience working in the leisure industry and now works as the Content and Campaigns Officer at British Canoeing.

2023 Freestyle World Championships

Good Wave, Columbus, Georgia, USA The feature for this event was a wave, unlike anything we have in the UK. The pile comes above your head when you surf to the bottom of the pile.

Squirt
Most British paddlers made it through the heats and into the semi-finals, but an unfortunate Becky Green narrowly missed out in 11th place. Alex Edwards missed out on a final place by only 40 points. On his international debut, Laurence Reading placed 10th. The three remaining women all made it to the finals. Ottilie gave a dazzling display of surface tricks, and Tamsyn was hot on her heels too. However, USA’s Rose Wall sank her way to victory, with an impressive 31 seconds underwater, with Ottie in second and Tamsyn in third. In the men’s, David Rogers put up a good battle; however, it was a clean sweep of medals for the USA as they showed the local knowledge of the spot.

C1 Men
A mix of performances from the Brits, with an injured Ibbo coming in 13th, newcomer Ben Higson in 16th and veteran Adam Ramadan squeezing through to the semi-finals in 10th. The finals were a show! Seth Chapelle of the USA was in third and stoked to be on the podium again. Nevertheless, he threw down the ride of a lifetime, landing all his moves and a couple he looked surprised about. That was enough to take Seth to the top of the podium for the first time in his 20-year career. The 2022 world champion, Landon Miller, came in third, and Dane Jackson settled for second. The grandstand went wild for Seth’s victory as he celebrated with his wife and two children.

C1 Women
In the heats, a very unlucky flush saw Becky Green miss out on qualifying for her final spot. Some cool and collective runs from Jak Fantastic, Tamsyn McConchie, and Ottie saw them put enough points on the board to join Poland’s Zofia Tula and Canada’s Sophie Gilfillan in the final. Jak missed the wave on her final two rides, coming fifth. Tamsyn came out strong, scoring 65 points, enough to take home her second bronze medal of the event. Zofia Tula was making her C1 debut, and her K1 prowess shone through as she showed a range of moves, paddling her way to a silver medal. Ottie showed us why she was defending world champion, landing a run that more than doubled Zofia’s and claiming her first gold of the event.

K1 Junior Women
The junior women was where one of the hometown favourites could be found. Makinley Kate Hargrove of the USA lives by the feature and has grown up paddling on it. Unfortunately, in the heats, Issie Wormall missed out, coming 16th. The semi-finals saw another shift in positions. Ireland’s Leah Hough shot up the rankings and into fifth place with a big first run, showing that her time in Canada was paying off. Makinley brought the challenge to Canada’s Sophie Gilfillan, putting a run down almost triple of Sophies and taking the win. Niamh Macken came close to her second international final, finishing in sixth place, whilst Sienna enjoyed her chance to paddle a semi-final on her debut, scoring points again and finishing 11th. A commanding first run from Makinley took her straight to the top of the podium. Sophie pushed with her second run, only 20 points off the win. Eleanor Knight threw a big final run to enter the bronze medal position.

K1 Junior Men
Returning World Champion Tim Rees from Germany was aiming to be the first junior man to retain the title; however, the surprise of the round came from GB’s Jool Gardener; on his international debut, he took it to the world champion and bettered him by over 300 points! Timmy Hill also performed well enough to make it to the semi-finals, landing in fourth place. In the semi-final, Jools looked to replicate the big air, but the tricks weren’t quite able to stick in the feature, which was an unexpected departure for him. In the final, Tim became the first-ever junior man to retain the title! Onni Eronen of Finland also laid down his biggest ride on his first try, landing him in the silver medal spot. GB’s Timmy Hill risked it all on run three and laid down his biggest run yet. This nudged him ahead of Matteo and onto the podium for a bronze medal.

K1 Women
The Women’s K1 is a growing category where the quarter-final cut 39 paddlers to just 20, and that first cut saw a few surprise exits, including Poland’s Zofia Tula, GB’s Becky Green, and Canada’s Katie Kowalski. In the quarter-finals, Derby McAdams, Britain’s Emma Witherford, Tamsyn McConchie, and Dino Rock failed to progress. However, it was business as usual for Ottilie Robinson-Shaw as she kept the top spot. Emily Jackson, Sage Donnelly, Abby Holcombe, and GB’s Heidi Walsh joined her in the semi-finals.

In the semi-finals, with five paddlers having won world championships in the past, it was going to be tough to make the final cut. That didn’t stop one of Britain’s most determined paddlers, Heidi, found her rhythm in the last 15 seconds of her ride, hitting one trick after another, and her score rocketed up, landing her in third place and through to the finals. Ottie, Emily Jackson, Sage Donnelly, and Hitomi Takaku joined her.

In the finals, the pressure was on for all the paddlers. Ottie was looking to defend her world champion title, Emily and Sage were looking for a home win, Hitomi was looking to reclaim the title, and Heidi was looking for her first. However, it was Sage’s title after she had landed the run of a lifetime, scoring two helix’s, among other things! Ottie went for her biggest tricks, but unfortunately, she flushed just seconds into the ride and had to settle for silver. Emily Jackson took the bronze.

K1 Men
The first cut was down to 20 for the quarter-finals, which is always brutal as there are more than 20 who deserve to progress through. Among those to make it through to the next round were six former world champions, including Dane Jackson, Alan Ward (2005 junior winner), Tom Dolle, and Nick Troutman. The British team lost three paddlers in the first cut, Nick Beavis, Gavin Barker, and Nathan Hefford, all falling victim to the wave’s brutal changeability.

Unfortunately, Harry Price fell foul of the feature in the quarter-finals, finishing in 14th place. Other big names missing were Kalob Grady and Joaquim Fontane-Maso. Alan Ward kept British hopes alive, in seventh position.

The standard of paddling needed to make the final was set high, and the wave still proved changeable enough to throw off some paddlers. Hometown favourite Mason Hargrove showed that no matter how much time you spend on the wave, you never know what could happen. Rising to the occasion was Alan Ward, throwing snappy tricks in the safe zone of the wave. This saw Alan make his first world championship final in 10 years, joined by Dane, Nick, Tom, and Hayden Voorhees.

The jostling of medal positions ran through the first two rounds of the final, with the silver and bronze changing hands numerous times. However, showing why he is widely known as the G.O.A.T, Dane Jackson won the gold medal with a final run into the 1300s. That was a score out of reach of his fellow finalists. Nick’s second run saw him take a silver medal, and Tom Dolle of France secured his bronze medal with his third and final ride. That was Dane’s fifth senior title, making him the most successful freestyle paddler ever.