Home » Archives » July 2006 » France is going better and better with each game. Maybe they'll score 5 goals in the next match, and 10 in the final?
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| 01 July 2006: "France is going better and better with each game. Maybe they'll score 5 goals in the next match, and 10 in the final?" |
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| Movement If you've been following the Message Board lately, you'd know that a new champion contender has surfaced. Richard Karlsson was always quite high ranked, but this weeks' incredible 20-PR surge has cut his AF by 2.75pts, to 4.21. This puts Richard in the #1 spot. #2 Hendrik Bunde sits on an AF score of 4.5, and #3 Raphael Segas on 4.87. Hendrik and Segas were inactive this week, but they are aware that Richard has been playing behind. It's pretty clear that the top players are still actually quite close, and any of them can make a move and claim the title. Hendrik and Segas have swapped the title a few occasions, but this is Richard's first time in the top spot. How long will he remain up there? The Past Champions page keeps track of total number of days. #1 Richard Karlsson made a 1.1pt ARR cut with those 20 PRs, which promoted him to Myth A. He even out-paced Hendrik and Raphael in the ARR chart, with an ARR score of 1.61, making him #1 in both AF and ARR. Who will be the first to reach Myth+ (score of 1.49)? #4 Vincent van der Fluit managed to turn in a 0.3 AF drop for the week, despite having many of his times beaten by Richard. Vince raced 8 PRs this week, 3 of this were G+ (BP lap was G+7!) He lowered his ARR to 2.26, which is 1/4 of the way towards becoming Myth+. Since Hendrik and Raphael fell back about 0.6 each and Vince caught up to them by 0.3, the net gain over the week was a whole AF point removed from the gap. The gap between him and #3 Raphael is now 0.5 AF pts. He might even catch Raphael by next week?! Germany is still winning, and #5 Marius Mollenhauer is therefore still drinking to celebrate. He only reported 7 PRs, but only one of them was not a 60Hz record. This brings Marius' 60Hz WR tally to 22, while Olivier Peruch has fallen back to 9. In the combined ladder, Marius improved by 1.3 AF pts, and sliced a whole AF point off the gap between him and #4 Vincent, and now trails Vincent by only 0.2. That means he might catch Vince, or even Raphael, very soon. Another exciting piece of news is that, like Richard, Marius has now become Myth A. He is one of 5 people to do so. His ARR score of 2.09 is almost 1/2 of the way to reaching Myth+. While Richard is much closer to reaching M+ (1.6 ARR), half of Marius's times are from 2005, so he may send in many new PRs on those tracks. #6 Tristan Eyma reported 9 scores this week, three of which were God. His 1.1pt AF cut allowed him to pass both #7 Jonathan Steel and #8 Paul Maes at the same time! The good news for Tristan is that his #6 spot looks safe for now, but the bad news is that he faces a 3pt AF gap between him and the next player ahead, #5 Marius. #9 Aron Langerak passed Rene Bauer last week, and not only passed Rene's friend #11 David Schiering, but also #10 Olivier Peruch. He did this by achieving 16 new PRs, for a huge 2.5pt AF cut (almost as big as Richard's). He's got a lot of momentum, but we expect him to slow down a little, now that the PRs become a lot harder to find. His next goals are Steel and Maes, who are 2 AF pts ahead. In the meantime, he can be quite pleased he made the top-10, and earnt the title Myth B. #10 Olivier scored 5 PRs and is still active, though he managed only a very small AF cut for this week, with being bombarded by PRs from Richard, Aron and Marius that were beating his PRs. Maybe slow and steady will win the race?  Before we continue... Nathan Cromwell has been temporarily removed from the site. Apparently he's having trouble making/providing videos to the proof mod (Vince), so Vince decided to take him off the ranking to kick him into getting himself validated. Nathan was ranked just inside the top 20, so many people's AF scores improved a little. We hope he validates himself and gets his times reinstated soon. Oh, btw, if you were planning on make a TV interview, documentary or writing a biography of the best Canadian karter, you'll have to arrange an appointment with Nathan's stunt-double, #48 Benoit Boudreau. #23 Jean-Christphe Lacastaignerate has returned after a 3-week absence/holiday/sleep with 6 new PRs. He cut a reasonable 2.2pts with that, to overtake #24 Kris Will and #25 Jake Sopcak. Top-20 is beckoning, and #21 Olivier Lavenant and #22 Mike Hartjens are only a tiny bit in front. Lavenant scored 5 PRs of his own this week (and passed Hartjens), so he may refuse to let J-C pass him without a fight. #43 Marijn Jongbloed has somehow managed 22 new PRs (Dutch Crazy Holy Llama Duck Smash PR Virus?), which is three times more than last week. So he's sort of accelerating? His PRs this week were quite varied, ranging from Myth D, though the Titans and all the way to Hero C. This means that he's probably got a fair bit of potential if he can hit Myth times, so all the PRing is justified. Marijn's effort amounted to a 14.7 AF pt cut, and he gained around 16 places this week. If you do the maths, that means he broke the top-50 barrier, too! #39 Bart Janssen-Bouwmeester and #40 Steven Zwartjes are probably on his To-Beat list. Another player who broke the top-50 this week was #45 Alejandro Laflamme, who also became Titan C. His PRs averaged to around mid-Titan level, but Alejandro also scored his first Myth time, a Myth C in Baby Park. Yet another was #48 Benoit Boudreau, who passed #49 Julien Boisiaud, #50 Yoann Seznec and #51 me. #59 Ivo van der Stap made a small comeback in the past couple of days, and could continue his comeback into the new month. Ivo not only scored his first Myth time this week, but it was also Myth B, on Baby Park (course, not lap!). His next best is Titan A, but he also has many Hero times that he can try to improve. Improving them will help him chase up fellow Dutchie, #56 Thomas van Leeuwen. Thomas overtook #57 Sylvin Rigal this week, and is turtling along towards the top 50. #82 Andrew Math is turning heads and raising question marks, about his potential and his validity. He's a young guy with time to burn, so 27 PRs is feasible, if annoying and jealousy-inducing. As big cuts go, 27 PRs is sure to cause a shake-up in the rankings, and Andrew produced a 33pt AF cut that propelled him far beyond the top-100 barrier. He's starting to score Titan times now, so everyone close in front of him should expect to be getting passed sooner or later. #87 John Hornick was annoyed that Andrew doesn't seem to want to stick around to play and made such big cuts, but in the mean time, John can entertain himself with the prospect of catching Silver and Bronze medallists #75 Simon Laflamme and #79 Matt Brown, who are within reach of a week or two of PRs. Canada's leader, #48 Benoit, might make a good long-term goal. #119 Dan Walker has finished his exams, and promises to play more kart. He started off with 20 PRs, resulting in a 19pt AF cut. He might reach the top-100 soon if he keeps it up. #123 Konsta Jukka has run away with the Finland title, scoring a 39pt AF cut this week to leave #151 Oskar Joutsijoki and #158 Arto Jarvela far into the distance. Konsta is sending in several PRs every day or two, and shows no signs of slowing down. Looks like he will be a top-100 finisher in the near future. And he became Exp A this week, so expect a new Hero by next week! Expert C player #214 Jerrol Hoppenbrouwers is slowly closing down the gap between him and son Flynn. Flynn improved ten places this week, while Jerrol did slightly better, overtaking 15 players. Among his victims were two Dutchies (#221 Enzio Fruijtier, #229 Egbert van Doeselaar), and he has several more en route to the top-200 and Flynn. One Dutchie who may only make a fleeting appearance is #224 Marc Schwartz. Marc moved up 56 places over the week, due to a big 67pt AF cut. He also became an Expert, at Exp D! It's the third week in a row that Marc had made a large cut; he joined a bit less than a month ago, and has since improved by over 100 positions. #242 Rhodri Morgan used to follow Marc around for a little while, but now he's closer to matching the pace of #237 Robert Chastain. Both players broke into the top-250 to close of the month, both had cuts of around 25 AF pts, and both were promoted from Adv A to Exp D. Honourable mentions: #64 Michael Duerr (Hero A), #78 Andre Overesch (Hero B), #134 Joey Michorius (Exp A), #269 Ricardo Fernandez (Adv A), #361 Jeff Kottcamp (skipped past Int A to claim Adv D instead), #414 Paul Klein (Int A), #492 Mark Engelsman (reached Int D, but stopped just shy of Int C). New Records Lots and lots. Something is wrong with Peach Beach. Maybe it's a glitch with the timer, since four players are tied for first place here, the chances of which are very small. We already had three-way-tie last week, but this time it was Tristan Eyma who was the new player to score a 21"856 lap. Richard Karlsson played some PB as well, and came up 0.02 short and settled for 5th place. Unless he ties or beats the WR, he can't get better than 5th! As mentioned, Richard made colossal improvements this week, and a few of those were records. Richard started off his WR week with two new times on Mario Circuit, 1'28"004 and 27"986. The course time is Myth A, and 0.15 faster than v/d/ Fluit's Myth B score from two months ago. The lap is "only" 0.04 faster than second place, but Richard is the first and only player under 28 seconds here, and his time meets the God standard. Later in the week, Richard played Daisy Cruiser. He was already pretty good here, but maybe he was desperate for AF points. His 1'37"605 edges out Paul Maes by 0.01, but both players have Myth+ scores. Tristan Eyma recently took the Wario Colosseum lap record from Segas, by a narrow margin (0.02). Richard ended his week by beating Tristan by 1/10th of that margin - by 0.002! His 58"374, just like Tristan's and Rapha's laps, satisfies the God standard. Last week, Vincent van der Fluit decided to play some Bowser's Castle, since nobody had really focused on it for a while. His new times seem to have attracted some activity, with both records tumbling this week. Karlsson raced his 5th record of the week, beating Vincent's 2'18'62 with a 2'18"572. Vince's was Myth A, but Richard's is Myth+. Aron Langerak squeezed in between Vince and Richard at the very end of the week, missing out on the WR with a 2'18"61. However, Aron succeeded in the lap - 45"155 was a whole 0.08 faster than Vince, and reaches the God standard. Richard also played the lap, but managed a 45'25 for 3rd place. So Vince lost some records, but he also beat one. His new Mushroom Bridge 25"745 lap is G+3, and 0.02 faster than Tristan Eyma. Last but not least, Olivier Peruch has beaten both of the Dino Dino Jungle records. The scores were 1'42"754 and 33"208. The ranks are Myth A and Myth+. The 3lap time is 0.04 faster than Emmanuel Debenest's record from one year ago. The lap managed to top Segas by 0.03, but didn't reach the God standard. Karlsson also played DDJ, scoring 4th place in both 3lap and lap, while Eyma managed 3rd place on the lap this week. Maybe the activity of these 3 strong players will encourage the others to switch to DDJ. In 60Hz, Marius Mollenhauer has been Holy Smashing some records, trying to get back some back from the ones Olivier took. The Baby Park 7lap was a narrow one, with Marius's new 1'04"923 being only 0.02 faster than Olivier. Lucky for Marius, he made it to Myth A while Olivier's time was Myth B! Bo Garman is the 3rd player in 60Hz who has broken 1'05. Now to a much bigger lead... Mario Circuit! Marius improved the 60Hz marks to 1'28"205 and 28"026 (Myth B and Myth+). The 3lap time is 3rd overall, while the lap is 2nd overall! Unlucky for Marius that Richard beat both overall WRs in 50Hz this week. But Marius leads the rest of the 60Hz field by 0.25 in the course time and 0.09 in the lap. Jake Sopcak recently scored a 1'35'7 in Mushroom City, to claim the 60Hz record. Marius saw an opportunity to play a level he had not touched in some time, and perhaps the new MT techs helped him to beat Jake by 0.4s, with a 1'35"343. It is 5th in the overall stakes, but is faster than Karlsson, Segas, Maes, Steel and Eyma. Oh, it's also a God time As for the lap, Marius's new 31"134 was even G+2, and is 0.16 faster than the next best 60Hz score. It is 4th overall, but he missed Hendrik Bunde by just 0.001.While Richard improved the overall Daisy Cruiser WR, Marius got pretty close to beating him with a 1'37"659, only 0.05 slower. Overall, it is 4th place, and is behind Bunde but ahead of Segas. The next best 60Hz time is Olivier's, pretty close behind at 1'37'83. Of course, Olivier Peruch also beat both of the DDJ records. But since they were overall records, they are listed above. Olivier leads Marius by around 0.8s in the 3lap and 0.14 in the lap there. However, Moly's times are from last year, and he might be planning to return to this level some day! New Players Welcome to... Omar Al-Azhar, Netherlands (252nd, Adv A) Gilles Roudeilla, France (~278, Adv A) Mark Turner, UK (~644, Beg C) Rob Blanchard, USA (545th, Beg A) Richard Turenhout, Netherlands (436th, Int B) |