By Gareth Purnell

ENGLAND showed their world class to come from seven points behind Belgium after day one to take the world championship gold by eight points. Belgium took the silver and Hungary the bronze. France and Italy were tied for fourth place, with the French nicking it on weight.
On the individual front Will Raison added a section fourth to his day one result and that was good enough for bronze.
Guido Nullens of Belgium is the world champion after totalling three points, with
Stephane Pottelet of France nicking the silver from Will on weight. Alan Scotthorne, who won his section on day two with over two kilos, was fourth also with five points, and Steve Gardner sixth. Stu Conroy finished 22nd overall. Des Shipp, who came in for Sean Ashby, finished 14th in A section with 485 gr.
It was a superb effort to claw back the deficit – England came for gold as always and got it. It’s also great for Will to get a medal and while this is all about the team, for him to get a section fourth from peg 22, the area where Sean Ashby struggled on day one, was amazing.
Alan won his section by half a kilo, which is incredible on this venue and Steve Gardner was as solid as ever and like Alan has a fantastic world championship record, the only difference being he’s never got the individual gold.
After weighing up the day one results, England approached the second day by being more aggressive in the good areas with the amount of joker fed, and less aggressive where things had been hard on the first day.
Belgium blew their gold chances with three mediocre efforts on day two,, while favourites France could not cope with a 23rd in section from Diego da Silva and slumped out of medal contention.

World Championship Result:
Individual Top 10: 1 Guido Nullens, Belgium, 3pts; 2 Stephane Pottelet, France, (2975gr); 3 Will Raison, England, 5 (2745); 4 Alan Scotthorne, England, 5 (2440); 5 Attila Erdel, Hungary, 6, 3360; 6 Steve Gardner, England, 6 3185; 7 Rene Stronck, Luxembourg, 6, 2760; 8 Simone Carraro, Italy, 7, 3515; 9 Jacobe Falsini, Italy, 7, 3125; 10 Wiklor Walczak, Poland, 8 , 3765.

Teams Top Ten: 1 Drennan England, 64pts, 11650gr; 2 Belgium, 76, 9800gr; 3 Hungary, 77, 9875gr; 4 France, 79, 11125gr; 5 Italy, 77, 10765gr; 6 Luxembourg, 90, 9085gr; 7 Finland, 93; 8 Germany, 99; 9 Russia, 104.5; 10 Poland, 107.5.

Others: 12 Ireland, 139.5; 14 Wales, 141; 15 Holland, 146.5; 30 Channel Islands, 252.5.

For the full results CLICK HERE

Don’t miss Midland and Southern Angler for a first hand report for how things went in the eyes of Mark Downes, Sean Ashby, Will Raison, Steve Gardner and Des Shipp.

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Day One Report

DRENNAN England find themselves in the silver medal position after day one of the World Championships in Finland, seven points behind leaders Belgium.

Belgium scored 25 points, with England on 32 and France, Hungary and Italy tied in third on 40 points. The other home nations competing did not make the top ten.

On the individual front Will Raison has a great chance of his first gold after winning his section with 1560gr, a weight that included three 8oz skimmers.

Steve Gardener will also fancy a medal after finishing second, and Alan Scotthorne and Stu Conroy both managed a section fourth. Sean Ashby drew a bad area in A section, and could only manage 21st. He didn’t have a bite in the last 90 minutes and will make way for Des Shipp on day two.

Speaking to Total-Fishing.com from the banks of the Saimaa Canal, manager Mark Downes said: “We have to be happy with the where we are – there are 28 teams who would love to be on our position. You can’t be surprised at the success the Belgians have had – this is a 50-metre wide canal where silver fish are your target and that’s what Belgium is full of.

“We need some luck with the draw tomorrow as there are some very tough areas. Will is in A section tomorrow and he does not want to be in the middle where Sean was. There was nothing Sean could do. He just could not get a bite in the last half of the match.

“The venue actually produced bigger weights than we expected, but that was because more bigger skimmers showed,” added Mark. “If you only had small fish you could only do about 600gr but four of our anglers weighed in over a kilo today. The bigger skimmers played a huge part and if you got one it really set you up.

“In terms of how we will approach day two, we will be a little more positive in the better areas and more cautious in the bad areas.”

The match was fished from 11.30 to 2.30 on day one due to a lot of big ships going through, but day two is expected to revert to a 10.30am start.

 

World Championships Day One Result: 1 Belgium, 25pts; 2 England, 32; jt 3 France, Hungary and Italy, 40; 6 Luxembourg, 41; 7 Germany, 54; 8 Poland, 59; 9 Czech Republic, 59.5; 10 Russian, 61.5.

Section winners
A (12): Jan Heidenreich, Czech Republic 2.640kg

B (30): Franck Meis, Luxembourg 1.160kg

C (2): William Raison, England 1.530kg, pC2

D (5): Attila Erdei, Hungary 1.785kg, pD5

E (28): Goran Radovic, Serbia & Montenegro 2.160kg, pE28

Total Fishing will bring you the result on Sunday as close to 4pm UK time as we can get it.