By James McBeath - The final day for women’s K1 competition at the 2012 World Cup of Freestyle kayaking included a morning semi final session and a finals in the afternoon.  The world’s top names mixed with some new names on the scene made their way down the rocks to the cool waterfalled feature. 

Like her brother in C1, Emily Jackson dropped a 278 onto the score sheets with her first of two rides. Nina Csonkova of Slovakia came out for the finals day and was able to loop and connect some of the more aggressive moves following pretty close to Emily’s rides all the way through. Adriene Levkenecht also pulled out all the stops with two identically scored rides of 105 keeping a close 3rd. When the dust settled Emily was in top spot with Nina close behind and Adriene in third, Erin Clancey in forth and Jackson fave Courtney Kerin slipping into 5th and final spot with a cool loop! Yeah!

The finals saw Emily equal her best 287 ride again with pressure from Nina and Adriene. Second spot was hotly contested as Nina and Adriene were within 25 points apart. But it was Emily taking the first World Cup stop victory with consistent and techically perfect rides. Nina finished second and Adriene third.

Men's Final

Like the women’s final day, men’s consisted of two runs a semis in the morning (again), Joaquim Fontane from Catalonia and Canadian youth and newly crowned Canadian champ, Adam Chappel. There was no holding back as the air screws, space godzillas, phonix monkey’s and even tricky woos showed up. Dane stepped up to the throw down a first ride of 973 making his presence known immediately. Peter Csonka quickly stepped up with a first ride score of 760 but clearly looking like he was on his game this day. Eric Jackson showed his continual strength on his home wave with a 633 before flushing early. Some of the mainstays on today’s modern podiums missed the cut including Nick Troutman of Canada having two sub 600 rides and Stephen Wright with a top ride of 530 a mere 50 points beyond that last spot for the finals.

The finals saw Dane, Peter, Joaquim, Adam and EJ lining up in the eddy to throw down. Again Dane hit his high score on his first ride a 755, a good 180 points below his best ride of the Cup stop. Joaquim impressed everyone with his agressive and colorful style flashing his carbon boat around with determination, finishing with a high score of 728. But the ride of the day for the finals was from the veteran Peter Csonka who recorded a final ride of 916!  Sadly he had to wait for Dane’s last ride. A very audible sigh released as Dane flushed early in his last ride scoring only 471 points giving Peter a key victory.  Super exciting finish!

Next World Cup, the second one, will commence 28 August at the Pigeon River in Hartford, Tennessee. For more information visit: www.freestylekayaking2013.com/world-cup.html