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'Italy'
October 2003 I had
the privilege to witness some of the most spectacular fishing
performances I have ever seen, by England’s top disabled match
anglers, in the form of Team England and eight other countries at the
World Disabled Championships in Italy. The venue was: Lake Borghese at
Monsummano in Tuscany. This Man made 5acre Lake was Square with a huge
Island splitting the lake into two halves.
The England team comprised of: Martin
Kershaw, an amputee from Rochdale and backed by Tri-cast, this was
Martins first time in the England squad and after his superb performance
it will not be his last.
Stefan Gent
having limited use in one arm from Bury he’s getting an old hand at
international level now, he had the chance of Gold after day 1 with 1
point but unfortunately it was not to be and finished with 9 points in
total. Third member of the team was: John Dunn from Hertfordshire, John
was one of the original squad members from several years ago, and the
only wheel-chair angler in the team. The final man in the team was Keith
Williamson from Merseyside, Keith who fishes with only the use of one
arm is another experienced international, and finally Alan Marsden form
N/ Ireland Alan was unlucky not to make the final 4 man team but played
an important role for the team as a bank runner on both days.
The matches on both days are held over 3
hours under strict rules, with a fish tally being written up each hour
on the board behind each angler by the Marshal and through the use of a
bank runner this information is passed on to the coach. Each angler has
a helper but is restricted in how much help he can receive by his
disability.
During the practice days prior to the final
two-day competition England had dominated, and comfortably looked like
winning a medal. By constantly catching hard fighting grass carp up to 8
kilo with their incredibly accurate use of long range 10-18 gram waggler
fishing.
And I mean accurate, how many of you can
constantly cast and feed at 40- mtrs hitting your float with sticky-mag
and then change to ground bait and do the same? Some may say easy!
Let’s make the scenario a bit more difficult let’s cut off one arm,
or give you some other disability, have a Marshal sat behind you
watching your every move, not to mention the crowd and Dave Vincent the
coach, I’m scared all ready, add high winds gusting to gale force (a
porta-loo ended up in the field) and to top it all torrential rain. All
of the practice days had been held in glorious sunshine, with little to
no wind at all; they hadn’t had any rain for 4 months.
To fish at International level, takes not
only nerves of steel and a great deal of skill, which the team had plenty
of but shear determination to do well. Even though their result was 6th
place you could take none of their qualities away from them, as the result
was only due to the weather change, I for one was very proud of the team
and their performance.
We’ve all had bad draws, but to draw a bad
peg then draw the next peg to it on day 2, that’s what England had to
endure. The weights came off the same pegs on both days, as usual end pegs
with our lads sat in the middle of the sections. The biggest weight of the
championships came from Orlando Basto 43 from Portugal; with 11.620k he
finished overall Winner with gold having amassed only 3 points over the 2
days. Winning silver individual medal was Czech Republic Pavelka also with
3points but with a lower weight. Bronze medal went to Portugal’s Antonio
Alcada another 3 pointer but again the weight came into play.
The team’s results were:
1st Portugal 23 points
2nd Czeck Republic 28 points (29,760k)
3rd France 28 points (21.600k)
4th Italy 30 points (27.280k)
5th Belgium 30 points (20.180k)
6th England 46 points
7th Bosnia 52 points
8th Slovenia 54 points
9th Germany 69 points
It was an experience I shall never forget,
the camaraderie between the anglers from all the different countries was
brilliant. On Friday the day before the match the Italians closed the
middle of Monsummano for the opening of the event, with the teams parading
through the town proudly waving their flags followed by the opening
speeches, which took place from a rostrum in the town square.
On the evening
of the final day we all 100 plus, went to a huge villa in Monsummano for
the presentation, where we tucked into a traditional Italian 12-course
meal and sampled their fine wines. The presentation took place in a
separate room across the olive-tree-clad courtyard, where every nation
joined in to congratulate the winning teams and pass memorabilia between
themselves fantastic! As a disabled match angler myself, it was an amazing
experience. |
