Finals tomorrow!!!

Sorry for the late blog posting. It has been a hectic last couple days around here, and I realized I was behind on my updates.

Thursday was the women’s semi-finals, yesterday was men’s. As I have said on this blog before, semis are hard. Partly what makes them hard is that the result of a semi-final is simply you fail to advance or you don’t fail to advance. Because everyone starts over in the final, it is easy to fall into the trap of trying not to fail in semis and then bombing out.

Semi-finals at World Championships are, for obvious reasons, the hardest in the sport. Of a pool of 35 athletes per group, only 12 can advance to the 36 man final. The men’s field is so deep right now that even the best athletes are vulnerable and can get taken out in semis. Yesterday I advanced to finals, but in my group alone, a former world champion, former world silver medalist, and a former #1 in the world all failed to advance. In fact, the last two slots in our group were taken by me and Andree Mosiev of Russia, the defending Olympic Gold Medalist. So like I said, semis are rough.

Today I had off and tomorrow is finals. As the last qualifying event for the Olympics (not to mention a World title on the line) people are seriously geared up for this competition. I spent the day trying to rid myself of the soreness of yesterday’s competition and watching the women’s final. Tomorrow morning at 7:30 local time, we start off with the 36 man final. Historically worlds has not been a great competition for me, but hopefully I can end that tomorrow with a strong showing. Because I did not rest for the competition, I don’t have particularly high expectations and just want to put together an overall strong day.

For up to the minute results, please visit cardsys.hu or pentathlon.org.