2005 European Championships - Slovakia
Tomek's pictorial gallery, Day One - Part 2
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Above & below: Romain Koenig, from Luxembourg, employed similar style rigs to England with a large Cralusso for holding still, a standard Edmund lollipop for inching down the swim and a heavy round bodied river float for running through. He registered 6 points for 2.190kg in D section on day one but drew a bad area in B section on day two and ended with a total tally of 23 points.
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Above left: Ireland's Alan Larkin started the tournament well on day one with 2.440kg and 4 points from D section but fell away on day two from a poor draw in B section to end with a total of 15 points. That put him just behind the French maestro, Diego da Silva, in 23rd overall position.
Above right: Belgian Philippe Carroyer drew next to Will Raison on day one, not an enviable place to be at best, but he still managed to net 2.130kg to secure 7 points for his team who must have been disappointed with their overall performance, considering they came into the Championships as SIX Nations Champions'. |
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Above: William Raison, one of the most feared and respected anglers on the bank with some of the tools of his trade. Will crowned what has been a bit of a topsy turvy year with a stunning performance over the two days, to take something no other English angler has ever managed before, the European Individual crown. Over the 10 years he's been in the England squad, Will has had the distinction of scoring 2 points in each of the major championships... the World Champs, the SIX Nations and the European... and NOT win them!!! However this year he managed to achieve a fitting end to the season with a Euro Gold to add to his World Bronze... not bad for a year's work!
See William's video interview with MA.com on the internet. Available on our sister site, theanglingvideoacademy at the end of September.
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Above: The familiar array of Cralusso Torpedo's, this time belonging to Dutchman John Savelkoul who beat Hungarian star Tibor Ambrus (left) off the next peg... 1.280kg to 100 grams... such was the nature of the draw bag, where reputations counted for very little as current World Champion, Belgian Guido Nullens, found out in B section and 4x World Champ Alan Scotthorne on E.
Left: Tibor Ambrus has been one of Hungary's leading lights but like the rest of the suad suffered badly
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| Below: Rumanian Mihai Vargics was easily his countries best angler, scoring 8 points for overall 10th individual place. Unfortunately the rest of his team couldn't keep pace with him and the team finished in 15th spot. Mihai prepares to net a big skimmer on day one from D8 which helped him to a 5th in section with 2.290kg. |
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Left & below: With the skimmer safely in the net Mihai proceeds to display it to the gallery... not really the thing to do on a major championships... tell him William! |
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Above & below left: A great guy, great angler and great competitor... Frances' Diego da Silva, who put behind a terrible day one result... just 12 points for 950gr... and then came back the following day to score a 3rd in section from A23. Being positive, day one's result wasn't that bad considering that the anglers on both sides of him weighed in just ONE gram and ZERO grams !!! |
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| Above right: Robert Bednarski, one of Poland's rising stars and one of the youngest, being only 32 years old. Having made his debut appearance here in the 2003 World Championships when he exceeded all expectations and won Bronze. He took these two small barbel from D4 on day one for 1.380kg to secure 9 points for his side and another gritty performance from a poor area in C section on day two saw him come back with 5 points to help Poland gain European Gold from a venue they had done well on all week as our Mark Turner had reported in his daily Noticeboard. |
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Above left: Finland's Harri Sipola holds up (with his left hand!) the tiny fry that weighed ONE gram and got him 22 points for his country... now that's what I call desperate fishing!
Above right: Diego bring his catch to the scales over the obstacle course... his peg!
Below left & right: Diego, always one to give the photographer that special shot, shows off his two small barbel which weighed in at 950gr and some of the massive Cralusso Torpedo floats. Widely regarded as one of Europe's finest lollipop anglers, Diego conjured up a superb performance with them on day two to take 2.570kgs from a peg in section A which had only produced 330gr for the Hungarian master Szilard Magyar the day before. |
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