The last round of the competition in Munich was a fitting finale to the World Cup 2013. The stunning setting, under the canopy of the 1972 Olympic Games stadium, saved the impressive and animated crowd from a drenching. The main remaining competition for overall World Cup standings was between Shauna and Alex. Shauna made it onto the podium in 3rd, behind Alex in 2nd, so Alex took 3rd place overall in the World Cup, and Shauna took 4th.
Dave made the semi-final and Gill and Leah just missed out by a whisker. I was happier with my performance than of late, but had a couple of goes too many to work out the problems, so came 31st. I was disappointed to finish the season outside of points again. My overall ranking was 35th – a fair representation of my results for the season.
The qualification for my group was a hard with respect to the problems set. To put things in perspective, World Cup winner Anna Stohr only topped 2 of the problems. I topped one, the last one, in four attempts. It took that many to get of the ground! I was pleased to find a somewhat unorthodox solution on my second go, that I should have stuck to on my third go. Not trusting myself, I tried something else first before committing to the solution that worked for me. Most importantly I topped the problem, but I should trust my instinct more.
I feel that I may have topped the second problem if I had been more accurate with my footwork sooner. I got into the groove with no time left on the clock to get to the top. To get into the groove, a careful balance was required on a large volume. I only stood on the very edge of the volume on my last attempt, all previous attempts I was just slapping my foot on anywhere. This adjustment allowed me to progress. Tch, for taking so long remember how to balance, despite trying to practice on the first problem.
Thanks to Jane Newman for the photo of the first qualification problem in Munich. I did not manage to get my toe on the volume to help me progress… I enjoyed mantling for an obscene duration before standing on anything though!
The qualification problems in Eindhoven (European Championships), the following weekend, made the Munich ones relative warm-ups. Four bonuses could have seen me through to the semi-final. Gill Peet just missed out again in 21st place with four bonuses in a couple of attempts too many. I gained 3 bonuses, leaving me in 29th.
Eddie Cooper captured this image of me, that sums up my performance – wrong handed and using my knees inappropriately. I’ve got a knee bar between the volume and the undercut I needed to be holding (but my knee was in the way). It almost worked – so close to a top, yet so far.
I want to do more competitions, but that’s it for this year.
