I'm going to the worlds (as a spectator)!

Yesterday I went ahead and bought tickets to the Saturday and Sunday sessions of the whitewater slalom world championships up at Deep Creek, Maryland.  So I guess I'm really going now.  I'd been waffling because of a variety of issues (my back, some impending construction work on my building, a few little woodworking projects), but life is short... right?  I'll get to see semifinal and final action over these two days.  After that I plan to stay in the area for another week and do some paddling on the Youghiogheny and Gauley Rivers.

As I've mentioned before, this is the second time the slalom worlds have been held in the U.S. in the event's 65-year history.  The first time was 1989, just a few miles from Deep Creek on Maryland's Savage River.  That was one great weekend for the U.S. team.  The team put an exclamation point on its decade-long dominance of the C1 class, taking first, second, and fourth in the individual competition and winning the team competition.  Jon Lugbill won the individual title for a record fifth time, with Davey Hearn taking the silver for the fifth time (each time, he was second to Lugbill).  And the U.S. athletes acquitted themselves well in the other three classes: Dana Chladek and Cathy Hearn won silver and bronze, respectively, in ladies' kayak; Jamie McEwan and Lecky Haller teamed up for a fourth-place finish in C2; and Rich Weiss should have won the silver in men's kayak (a controversial five-second gate-touch penalty, later refuted by video evidence, knocked him down to fifth).  Weiss was later awarded the International Olympic Committee's Jack Kelly "Fair Play" award for not making a big deal out of this injustice.

Davey Hearn's wife Jennifer has posted some pretty awesome photos of those 1989 world championships on her Face Book page.  I don't know how to link to them here, but it's worth going to Face Book and having a look (she's "Hearn Jennifer" on Face Book; whether you can view the photos may depend on her privacy settings).

Meanwhile, I'm still doing my rehab exercises and got in a round of the September strength routine yesterday.  I was supposed to get a massage this morning, but the therapist had to cancel again for reasons related to his dad's health.  I plan to leave town tomorrow after lunch, so it remains to be seen whether I'll get a massage before then.