I second all the congratulations for a job well done by Kenny and Howard. Howard is no newbie to WC competition and I couldn't agree more with his assessment of the fliers from other countries who we haven't the pleasure to see fly here but who really know how the stuff is supposed to look.
If there is any down side to flying across the pond in a "very" major competition, it is the need to adapt to flying sites that aren't designed for stunt heaven as is our Muncie site. I feel for Kenny and his thrown prop and the deleterious impact it had on his whole experience. I've been there and done that and know full well how difficult it is to come back once...let alone twice as he had to do. Thanks to the good fellowship of Kaz (after being around him for so many years I wouldn't have expected less) Kenny's ultimate performance was nothing short of outstanding. After judging him at the Nats last year and seeing him make the team I had great good hopes for his competitiveness. Although the manner in which he competed was different than he had planned, the devotion to excel, whatever the demands, was obvious and the outcome a testament to his dedication. You've earned your stripes, Mr. Stevens. Well done.
After watching Howard for many years as he grew more mature and left the foam and fas-cal behind him I expected a good performance and that's what we got. As many have pointed out, eleven points out of more than 2000 is a paltry sum and well within the scoring "noise" factor. That those eleven will keep him idle come the finals is no disgrace. I've watched a number of the others in the same boat fly and know full well that the competition was keen to access the final fifteen. I've no doubt that Howard will be back and will make it clear that his talent deserves another few flights.
Orestes had the great advantage of experience with the whole rigamarole and, as one would expect, took advantage of what he has learned in the past. He will certainly be competitive with the best and I anxiously await the outcome. Show 'em how it's supposed to be done, Orestes.
Re judging in Europe. My experience has been that the judges there, as they are here, want to be as objective and fair as possible. The suggestion that they are familiar with a lot of the fliers who both attend contests in Europe regularly and then show up as team members for their countries at the WCs is absolutely true. I don't, however, feel there is a conscious bias and good flying, ultimately, usually comes home to roost at the top. The best example I can point at for that was in Budapest several years ago when Ryan Young was our Junior flier. Of course, none of the judges had seen him before and his first flights were competitive but not at the top of the heap. Ryan was both dedicated and committed, however, and refused to back down or become discouraged. Every round his scores got higher and higher and, in the final analysis, his superiority on finals day was recognized pretty much unanimously as he won the Junior World Championship over several excellent European Juniors.
The bottom line is that--as we all know--stunt is subjectively evaluated by human beings, almost all of whom are doing their absolute best (I'm convinced) to be as objective as possible as they do the very difficult task of entering numbers into boxes that aren't plucked digit by digit from a stop watch. It is absolutely predictable that they will tend to score familiar top fliers well from the get go and for the next fifty or so fliers might at first be, frankly, sifting the wheat from the chaff. Thus the beauty of formats that require repeated observation of the best fliers as they get sifted through the grinder of multiple flights with fewer and fewer survivors. Ultimately, they'll likely come up with the right fifteen in pretty much the right order.
It's hard work and they should get credit for doing it.
Ted
Topic: Team USA and the World Champs (Read 54663 times)
