Today was supposed to be a big day for me…and it still was, although only half as big as I was hoping. The reason? Rain! So far this week everyday has been humid, then rain, then clear skies. Today was no exception, except the rain came down with more fury than any other day and that led to the tournament director deciding to postpone Self Caught Flight until tomorrow.
That meant today was only Distance and what an event it was! I was the favourite going into Distance by virtue of having a huge throw at the most recent Virginia State Frisbee Tournament (212 yards) and as the defending WFDF World Distance Champion after I won last summer at the 2018 WFDF World Overall. I’m used to pressure, and although the field today was much thinner than normal, I still wanted to throw well and push my own potential.
When Andy set the throwing line up and told me that the fence was 183 metres away, I knew there was potential to hit the fence so I asked him to move the line back a few metres. Although that is a long way, I’ve thrown that before and hoped that I could get a throw out far enough to get there.
The way Distance works is that we throw two rounds of 5 throws per round with the top 5 throwers advancing to finals. I was up in the first heat and hit the fence on my very first throw! The next 4 throws I was chasing that throw but wasn’t able to do any better. After we measured, I had a mark on the board of 186 metres which is 610 feet – more than 2 football fields away!
At the end of the first round, I was 46 metres clear of the field so I knew that I just had to get a decent throw in the second round to make finals. I got a good one on my first throw so opted to not throw anymore knowing I had done enough to make finals. It ended up being a 141 metre throw (which was the longest throw in the second round by 2 metres) and advanced me to finals with a cumulative total of 327 metres!
The finals featured myself, Sam, Tom, John, and Jordan. I knew that I had to throw well because Sam has the potential to catch a big one (the last time we were in the finals today at a US Open was in 2012 in Santa Barbara, and he beat me by 1 metre!).
This time however, I would get redemption and ended up throwing a 178 metre throw in the finals to win with Sam finishing second and Tom finishing third. I’m super stoked for Tom and John making finals! Although the wind wasn’t ideal, I was able to adjust and get a great flight to push my disc almost to the fence again.
I love throwing Distance and I’m super stoked to have won my first US Open Distance title!
The plan after Distance was to run through two rounds and a final of Self Caught Flight but unfortunately, due to the weather, we had to postpone until tomorrow. I’m hoping that the rain will hold off so we’re able to run the event, which is my favourite and the one I’m always most excited to compete in!
Tonight we had the annual auction for Save the Children, which the frisbee community has been supporting for almost 35 years! We raised almost $1,300 and had a great time getting to catch up, tell story, play some games (like Jeff and Sam playing Connect 4), and raise some money for the kids. Also, the food at The Bark was delicious (and vegan!).
Tomorrow will be the 4th, 5th, and 6th rounds of DDC, then Self Caught Flight, and the first rounds of Freestyle.