It was a case of ‘close but no cigar’ for the Team England squad after their epic trek across Europe to do battle on Hungary’s Lake Deseda. They finished the weekend in an agonising fourth spot, only four points away from what would have been a very hard-earned bronze medal.
They finished on 37 points, while Slovakia stole the show to win overall with a superb 19 points. The hosts, Hungary, secured silver on 27 points and Poland the bronze with 33. Slovakia also had the individual champion in Jan Samel.
However, there was some joy for England, as skipper William Raison took individual silver. He scored the same perfect two points as Jan, but just missed out on weight by 24-625 to 20-400. Hungarian Laszlo Csillag nabbed bronze as the best of a clutch of anglers on three points.
Competitors were faced with a big lake holding carp, carassio, skimmers and bleak, and so a lot of the fishing revolved around slider work. After day one, England were in fifth position on 22 points. William Raison won his section, backed up by a fourth for Cameron Hughes, two fifths for Matt Godfrey and Simon Willsmore, and a seventh from Steve Hemingray.
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Changing Steve for James Dent on day two, England roared back with 15 points, William and Matt taking out their sections, Simon and James scoring fourths, and Cameron a fifth.
“Once again, the squad has been brilliant. They came back well after day one to finish third on Sunday and pull ourselves up one place, but unfortunately not quite far enough,” said England boss Mark Downes.
“The lake has been a very fair venue, but I think it went wrong for us early on in practice. We were on A and B sections, which fished well, but as the week went on, it became harder and needed a slightly different approach, which we didn’t quite cotton on to.
“Once we did, the performance was brilliant on the second day. I’ve always said that small margins often decide medals at this level, and the weekend has proved that.”
A captain's knock
A barnstorming performance from skipper William Raison helped England come back into contention. The Daiwa star won his section on both days to take the individual silver medal, denied gold only by total weight.
“Looking back, yes, I could have tried to catch more skimmers to get the gold, but you don’t know that’s possible at the time. Your main job is finishing as high as you can in the section for the team,” the 2008 World Champion said.
“Day one put me in D section, where I started off fishing for bleak on the whip, as did everyone else! I caught around 80 of them in the first 45 minutes, then chucked the slider out at 30m to see if the skimmers had arrived. I had one of around 1lb 8oz first chuck!”
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From that point, it was small worms on the hook over groundbait holding casters, joker and chopped worm for a run of skimmers. Only a strengthening wind caused him to revert back to bleak in the closing stages, but his 7-000 net gave him the all-important section win.
“I was off to E section on Sunday, and I fancied pegs 9 to 11, so when I got peg 11, I was very happy,” he revealed.
“As we were fifth, and needed section wins, I went for it from the off, knowing I was in a good area for skimmers. I started on the slider and never came off it.
“I ended up with 46 skimmers and two small carp for 13-400, a brilliant day’s fishing and another section win.”
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Results
INDIVIDUAL RESULT (KG): 1 J Samel, Slovakia, 2pts (24-625); 2 W Raison, Team England, 2 (20-400); 3 L Csillag, Hungary, 3 (39-000); 4 L Kondik, Slovakia, 3 (21-700); 5 B Csoregi, Hungary, 3 (20-625); 6 M Santus, Slovakia, 3 (18-225).
TEAM RESULT: 1 Slovakia, 19pts; 2 Hungary, 27; 3 Poland, 33; 4 Team England, 37; 5 Czech Republic, 38.5; 6 Belgium, 48.5; 7 Italy, 59; 8 Croatia, 59.5; 9 Spain, 67; 10 Bulgaria, 69.5; 11 Slovenia, 72.5; 12 Netherlands, 74.5; 13 France, 78 (superior weight); 14 Lithuania, 78; 15 Portugal, 80; 16 Serbia, 83.5; 17 Luxembourg, 86; 18 Ukraine, 87.5; 19 Romania, 88 (superior weight); 20 Germany, 88; 21 Bosnia & Herzegovina, 97; 22 Austria, 98.5; 23 Sweden, 100.5; 24 North Macedonia, 103; 25 Switzerland, 109; 26 Montenegro, 121; 27 Denmark, 124.
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