April 29, 2006

Weather - Beautiful day, sunny and mid-60's

OS - 47'9 (2nd)
HWFD - 36'0 (1st)
LWFD - 63'9 (2nd)
HH - 97'8 (1st)
Caber (18', 120#) - 12:00 (1st)
Sheaf (16#) - 30' (1st)
WOB - 14' (2nd)

Overall Place - 1st (out of 17 athletes)

OS - Stone was the normal MASA (Mid-Atlantic Scottish Association) open stone weighing in at 16.1 pounds. Best effort as 47'9 for 2nd place. My stone form is still off, and I find my self crowding the left side of the box. I will continue to work on it.

HWFD - Fouled my first attempt which always gets me nervous. I attempted a 'safety' throw on my second and would have preferred to foul it as it was barely over 27'! A quick prayer and quick selling of my soul to the devil, I was able to stay in the box for my final throw with a 36' effort. I decided to take extra attempts to get a decent distance, and was unable to. Unfortunately, during the extras, I completely tore off a callus on my throwing hand (below the ring finger), and also ripped a good chunk out of my index finger.

LWFD - Came up much shorter than expected in the LWFD. I am sure my grip played a factor, but it was poor footwork that really got the better of me. I fouled my 1st and 3rd throws, and the only throw counting was my 'safety' throw at 63'9.

HH - Following the pattern already beginning to form, I fell short of my HH expectations. I was sitting in 3rd place going into my final throw with my 1st two efforts not bettering 90'+. I needed better than 95' to take the event and managed to toss 97'8. I took three extras with no improvement.

Caber - After a 30 minute break to get some food, we started in on the caber. We had a fairly easy caber to throw, and I had the following series: 12:00, 12:30, 11:30. I am not one to argue with a judge, but I think the 12:00 was a generous score. :)

Sheaf - The sheaf felt pretty good today. It will probably be the last time in a while I throw a 16# sheaf as most pro games throw a 20# bag. I had no misses until 30' and I cleared it on my final attempt. I was the only thrower to clear, so I had the bar raised to 34'6, which would have been a personal record (PR) for me. I took three shots, and was just short. My second attempt sailed a little to the right, but had enough height.

WOB - With the state of my hand, I was not looking forward to the WOB. I managed to clear 14' without too much of a problem, but could not muster a 15' toss. Looking to get back over 15' on a consistent basis really soon.

Overall it was one of my lowest performing games in quite a while. I really wanted to 'go out with a bang', but did not. Hopefully I got a lot of the jitters and rust knocked off and will be hitting the ground running in the pros.