By Bartosz Czauderna &
Mike Shaw
Photos: Bartosz Czauderna,
Rudiger Hauser,
Mike Shaw
& Andy Aldred
Bartosz Czauderna Bio
Bartosz is the owner and coach of ‘Love It Live It’ More info at: https://loveitliveit.co.uk
E: bartosz@loveitliveit.co.uk
T: (+48) 695 137 302
FB: facebook.com/LoveitLiveit
FB: facebook.com/bartosz.czauderna
Mike Shaw bio
Mike Shaw started paddling at the age of 12 with his local Scout group. Turning it into his full time career, passing on his skills to groups of all ages and abilities. Mike is most at home in his Jackson Rockstar. Turning his hand to freestyle, nothing is more satisfying that getting huge air! He is supported by Jackson Kayaks, Mitchell Blades and Square Rock.
Freestyle rollercoaster – all eyes on Paris
The last international championships in Freestyles were held in Sort, 2019. Since then, due to COVID, the European Championships in 2020 was postponed by a year and then the World Championships. For paddlers locked down locally, it didn’t stop them from progressing and very often a getaway to keep them sane and focused on training. Paddlers worldwide overcame lockdown difficulties to stay fit, focus on their tricks and push their limits to become better.
Finally, after a two year break for international championships, the time had come. The scene has been reshuffling with big names coming from the junior category and significant improvements from other paddlers, but very few actual tests to see who is currently on top form. That made 6-9th of October, Paris 2021 (Varies Sur Marne) the date and place that brought all freestyle interested eyes starving for live streaming. Everybody had big appetites both for competition, expectations for results, and simply seeing everybody all together again. Pretty much the whole scene was craving for it.
The spot itself was difficult. Despite the promises, it was impossible to train in it for long periods of time before the event. Effectively, the first opportunities happened a little over a month before French selections took place. The hole is in a normal setting and first reports started coming out with the French selections, were that the scores were not what we were used to. What was the hole going to be like?
Over a month before the competition, we had already seen paddlers starting to gather and begin their training. It was expensive as one slot was 19 Euros per hour, but we were still only a few, so the training quality was acceptable, and everybody wanted to make the most of it – there was no other way to adapt to the feature! As time progressed, the turn-up was larger and it became more difficult as more people arrived, with limited training slots (one or two sessions per day) and 25 paddlers. You would get less than ten rides in one session, and given how challenging the feature was, it meant many of them were very flushy. People were motivated as many had made their goals a test for the COVID periods, but there could be only one winner as it is in competition.
Juniors
Junior categories were the biggest question marks – who is out there currently? Will we see surprises? What is the level of the scene? We had seen some great footage of training and knew the results from Sort, but since then, many new names have been appearing, and two years for the junior category is such a long time for the way they develop – anything could happen!
The Junior Women levels had increased significantly over the years, but with Ottilie Robinson-Shaw moving to the seniors, it left a very close battle between the others. Finally, it was Merle Hauser (Germany) stepping up her game and coming from fourth place after the semis to securing gold with a solid 440 points ride. Silver went to Jennifer Leal (United Kingdom) and bronze to Ida Wellensiek (Germany).
We witnessed sparks and emotion in the Junior Men as they fought for their places in the finals. The ferocity of youth was crushing hard against the difficulty of a shallow and flushy playspot, providing an unreal spectacle for viewers. Finally, on Saturday, the best five stood firm for the battle, but the final win went for Toby Marlow with 833.3 points (United Kingdom), second going to Tim Rees (Germany) and third to Unai Silva Fores (Spain).
Worth noting was that all the juniors from Germany had made it to the finals showing the long term effort into training juniors in Germany from early years have brought great fruits. Plenty of effort provided by German coach Helmut Wolf paid off.
C1
In the C1, after stepping down as reigning European Champion (five titles in a row), Lucas Cervinka (Czech Republic) – the category this year was dominated by French paddlers who always had a very strong representation in that speciality and took all three top spots. Best was Tom Dolle with 963.3 points followed by Sebastien Devred and finally Jean-Yves Moustrou. Fourth and fifth places went to Matthew Stephenson and James Ibbotson (both from the United Kingdom).
K1 women
Paddlers trembled with excitement as long-time rising star Ottilie Robinson-Shaw stepped up into the Senior Women’s category and challenged more experienced paddlers with her style and big tricks. Ottie dominated the category showing a gap in skill and winning with 750 points. Second place went to Zofia Tula (Poland), where she improved on her third from previous Europeans, and third went to Aoife Hanrahan, getting Ireland’s first-ever women’s ECA freestyle kayak medal. The fourth and fifth place were taken by Spaniards Nuria Fontane I Maso and Mireia Serres Segarra.
K1 men
Finally, the biggest show was delivered by the K1 Men category. Here surprises started earlier as there were no quarter-finals (as 40 paddlers are needed) and a big cut from 36 paddlers to best the ten that was proceeding to the semi-final round. Technically that was very challenging and stressful for many experienced paddlers who didn’t make it through. The difficulty comes from the fact that you have three runs in the quarter-finals where one is dropped. In contrast, there are only two rides in prelims, meaning you have to show consistency, and there is little place for taking risks. The pressure of so many great riders puts up a challenging combination for a style that has to be taken to make it. We have seen names that have been performing great in training missing the cut like Rob Crowe (United Kingdom), Thomas Dunphy (Ireland), Gav Barker (United Kingdom) or Rory O’Reilly (Ireland), to name a few.
A significant reshuffle happened in the semi-finals where only one ride counted which witnessed Harry Price (United Kingdom) and Thomas Richard (France) dropping from previous higher spots. I missed the final by 15 points and the chance to defend the silver medal.
well deserved
The finals were the top of a show absolutely stolen and well deserved by David McClure (Ireland), who took gold with the massive ride of 1496.67 points. David has been improving his game for years and was one of the most consistent and best paddlers, so bringing home this historical medal was a matter of time. A fierce battle for silver was won by the Vice World Champion Joaquim Fontane I Maso (Spain), who in his last ride beat Sebastian Devred (France) by just 30 points. Close behind them was Tom Dolle in fourth and fifth place to previous European Champion Tomasz Czaplicki (Poland).
The whole event was well organized; the crowd was big, and tv streaming helped reach many people who couldn’t make it in person. Most impressive was seeing the whole community together during the event, enjoying the freestyle and the sport through all the training and the event while cheering for everybody, supporting between the teams and friends while enjoying life as it used to be celebrating the spirit of freestyle kayaking.
Questions
The big question remains – what is going to be the heritage of that event? Will Paris (Varies Sur Marne) become a new spot on the freestyle map? Can a place so expensive for paddling become accommodating for the freestyle scene? And most importantly, after hosting such an event, becoming a capital of European freestyle for a while and creating a challenging playspot suitable for training – is it going to stay there or will it be gone with a first opportunity where slalom or training will need a change and Paris will never see freestyle again? Only time will tell but let’s hope for the best and that in future, we will see come back to Varies Sur Marne for more freestyle entertainment.
The angle from Team GB
By Mike Shaw
Team GB came into the Euros with 19 competitors, the largest of competing European nations.
In the past two years, the majority of competitors have only had one competition under their belt. The British Championships was held a month prior (see ‘Mountains Tumble’ article in the September issue https://paddlerezine.com/gb-freestyle), and like many athletes, Covid restrictions had largely put an end to international travel, especially for those within the UK who up until recently have had more travel restrictions than the wider European community. The Euros seemed to many like a distant fantasy; would it happen? Was the venue even finished? It looked unlikely even to go ahead and was confirmed only at the 11th hour.
A number of the team went out early, GB seniors, Ottilie Robinson-Shaw and Harry Price road-tripped down to Spain to compete at the Salt Kayak Festival before heading back to Paris, subsequently finishing as the highest GB athletes in their respective fields. Rob Crowe and Gav Barker, and several others headed to Paris in the weeks before to get some quality time training on the feature.
As Bartosz has said, the feature itself was undoubtedly a tricky one. It was flushy and not conducive to linked rides. We certainly wouldn’t be seeing the rides we saw back at the Brit Champs, that was for sure.
Each athlete had limited time to adjust to the feature, which was further limited once official team training began. Athletes would have to adapt and adapt fast!
Brutal cut
The cut to 10 in the Senior Men’s class was brutal, to say the least, losing nearly three-quarters of the field on day one! Many athletes missed the cut due to the nature of the feature and the format. Harry Price was the only GB senior man to make it through in third place but was unfortunately unable to secure a spot in the finals finishing 10th overall. The rest of GB’s senior men finished in the top 20, which would usually have been enough to proceed to semis, a frustrating start for the team but one that wouldn’t dampen their spirits.
In the C1 class, Matthew Stephenson and James Ibbotson put in an impressive showing, making it to finals and finishing fourth and fifth with Adam Ramadan in ninth place.
silver medal
GB’s junior women fought hard; Jen Leal, whose father David was proudly watching from home, made it through to finals in a great position and secured herself a silver medal. Charlie Aldred finished sixth, just shy of a final’s spot.
We had Patrick Kyle competing at his first international competition in the junior men, finishing in 12th. Ben Higson narrowly missed the finals cut in sixth place. He will undoubtedly be one to watch heading forward.
Whilst Toby Marlow, in what is likely to be his last event as a junior was neck and neck with his friend from Germany, Tim Rees, Toby edged ahead with a phenomenal finals ride and secured himself and team GB a gold medal. A great way to end his junior career.
In the Senior Women class, Team GB had a strong showing once again. Ottilie Robinson-Shaw was keen to showcase what two years of intense training looked like; the nature of the feature didn’t lend itself to the ride she knew she was capable of but certainly impressed even if she wanted more. Ottie took the gold medal in her first international senior competition.
highest women’s single scoring ride of the day
Whilst Lowri Davies narrowly missed out on finals in seventh; she is a strong competitor who has much more to show. Emma Witherford finished in sixth after a phenomenal run that was the highest women’s single scoring ride of the day; she should be proud and certainly showcased what she is capable of. Kim Aldred, whose sister was also competing in the junior event, had her highest senior finish in 18th place alongside Heidi Walsh, who was nail-bitingly close to making the cut, finishing 11th.
Table toppers
Team GB topped the medals table with two golds and one silver. We had many finalists and a great showing on the podium with many promising performances and narrow misses from individual athletes just shy of making the cut to semis or finals.
Team GB’s coaches and athletes will be looking to build on their European championships success for the upcoming Nottingham world’s in June 2022.
GB’s team selection event occurred less than two weeks after the Paris Euros at Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham. The largest number of competitor’s yet vied for a place on the team representing GB at the home freestyle worlds.
But you’ll have to wait until the next issue of the Paddler magazine to find out how that went!
