Worlds!

"We're at the worlds"

First of all, apologies for uploading a little late, as I was enjoying the last competition day too much, I didn't write it Sunday and on Monday I was really sick, so I fell asleep any time I could.

After the training results at the competition site, I had high hopes for the actual competition. I was performing really well in training and doing exactly what I would be really happy with in tournament. After having a massage and spa day on our last day off before the tournament, I felt that the preparation couldn't be any better. On Thursday, there was quite a lot of wind to consider, but nothing that I didn't train for, so it didn't worry me too much. I had two nice and easy passes to start off with and ran the 18 and 16 meter pass without problems or doubts. I was also able to control my nerves quite well and wasn't skiing really cramped up or safe like I had done in previous competitions. Then time for the 14 meter pass, which is the one I really wanted to run. I had a good gate, which was better than some passes in training. Even with a bad gate in training I was able to run it, so this shouldn't be a problem now. However, at 4 ball I still made a mistake, because I was thinking I had the pass in the pocket already. You should never ever think that before actually having gone through the end gate, so this was a really stupid and unfortunate mistake. I could, and should have done much more and immediately started hoping that I could make a come back at Europeans.

There was not a lot of time to be disappointed with the slalom result, because I had to pin my team mate Tycho Hof in tricks and soon after that trick myself. I was nervous to pin for him in such a big competition, because if you make a mistake, it can ruin their score. I had to pin Tycho on his second trick, so that was quite stressful, but I was sure of my case. Luckily for us, the camera wasn't working and he had to do a rerun for both his hands and toes. This time, he did all his toe tricks, like I'm used to him doing, and also all his hand tricks, so that was a much better feeling for me to start tricks with than my slalom result! In training I stood up my runs every time, so I was confident I would do the same in the competition. I really tried to take my time, because I really just had to make my first sequence, since I fell on it in some previous competitions. Sadly, after doing my first sequence well, I still fell on my 540, losing lots of points in my hands run. Since normally I am able to do all my toe tricks very steadily, I wasn't too nervous for that. I came out of my first tricks a little shaky, but tried to take my time to regain balance. However, I couldn't regain enough stability and still fell early in my course. I ended up with the lowest trick score that I set in a while... I know that with an easier run I can score more points than I am scoring now, but I won't be able to set a PB, so I'm still committed to making this new run work.

My first and only jump... (picture by Lena Klein Hofmeijer!)

Then on Friday it was time for jump. I had high hopes after my PB last competition. The main goal however, was to set a higher second score, because the ranking list is based on your best 2 performances and right now I had 27.6m from the Benelux, but 23.6m as second best score. My timing was pretty good on the first jump, which I was happy with, since that was an issue in training. However, during the landing, I hurt my arm and when I got up, I couldn't even put my arm up to grab the handle... I had to stop jumping and see the doctors. Still, even after watching back the live stream, I don't know exactly what happened, all I know is that it hurts quite a bit. I really hope I will be able to get back on the water soon enough so that I can indeed get my comeback at Europeans. I surprisingly got a score for that jump, because I didn't actually fall, and it was 25.2m, so a better second result for my ranking. Sadly, I don't think it is worth it, because I'm really scared for how fast the recovery will go. I want nothing more than to ski the long awaited PBs at Europeans, but I will have to get back to training soon if I want to do that!

Hopefully I will have some good news next time!