Highs and Lows

Yesterday was a day of the highest highs and the lowest lows.

But first... We went for a walk.

Metz has been held by both France and Germany over the years and has seen a lot of fighting. Evidence is everywhere. In Canada I think we sometimes boil down European battles to those in World Wars 1 and 2 (both of which were largely fought on French soil) but it has gone on for centuries. I wonder if we're now in their longest stretch of uninterrupted peace? The towers housed artillery batteries. The arch celebrates the various times Metz was liberated from the Germans. The cement ping-pong table in the park nearby celebrates how life goes on and ping pong endures.... (??!!)

I'm trying to imagine how hard it would be to play ping-pong in any sort of wind.

Brett and I also found a sweet playground on our walk. I will be sure to post some photos or bring them home. It had spinny ride things but it also had a sort of hand operated pump organ. Very cool. We got a little lost and then headed to the gym for lunch.

It was now time for the DMT Women to warm-up and compete.

There were three flights and our girls were spread out across all three. Kim Evans was in the first, Gillian and Corissa in the second, and Julie in the third.

Kim warmed up in the back gym with Trish, Brett, and I. Then Trish took her out into the Comp Hall. The strategy was to try and nail down the Half-out Tuck to Full-out Straight and Half-out Pike to Full-out Tuck that are her two highest DD routines. These gave her the best scoring potential here at her first World Championships. She did great and hit both routines. In the box, clean and solid. Brett and I were in the Training Hall with Gillian and Cori but could see the results on a TV screen as they came up and heard all about it after.

Gillian and Cori warmed up with both Brett and I. I then took the two of them out into the Comp Hall. Gillian had the same routines and same strategy as Kim. She had just warmed up two of the nicest passes I had ever seen her do and her head seemed to be in just the right place. Her HOT FOS was good and her landing was just outside the box. Her HOP FOT was stronger and landed in the box with a step. Cori was absolutely on her game and did her Half-out Pike to Full-out Straight and Half-out Tuck to Double Full-out Straight beautifully. These routines were amongst the highest in prelims. She did the first routine about as well as she possibly could have (a dead stick in the box!). Her 2nd routine she rushed just a little but it was still very nice and enough to put her in a strong spot for Finals.

Meanwhile Julie warmed up in the Training Hall with Brett and was dead-on. One of each of her passes done very well. Great set-up and ready to rock.

Julie came out into the Competition Hall where I was waiting. She looked calm and ready. She took her two touch and was set to go. Our strategy with Julie was to take it easy on the first pass with a Half-out Tuck to Full-in Full-out Tuck and then rock a much higher difficulty Half-out Pike to Double Full-out Straight. This would leave her with the highest DD finals routines of the meet to do in Finals and a great shot at a personal best there. She did a great job of her HOT FFT but went a little long in her HOP for her second pass. Unsure of just how long she was she subbed a Double Tuck. Unfortunately the subbed second routine combined with the deliberately low first pass just wasn't enough to contend at this level. Her week was suddenly over and we were both a little stunned.

In the end Corissa was 1st into finals with both passes scoring higher than any others and awith a fight to come. Several of the girls looked great. The two Russians Goncharenko and Balandina are very strong and former World Champion Sylvia Saiote looks better than ever. South African Bianca Budler has come out of nowhere with huge, clean, routines and her best saved for Finals. The America McKenna Kurz is brand new and we had no idea what she would show, Adeva Bryant from GBR had improved immensely since last seen so could be a threat and Canadian turned GBR competitor Robyn Osborne had a chance as well.

She would need to be strong.