I should at least mention that I forgot Daniel Fogel when listing the people who've travelled here from the four corners of the earth (and also the middle, which is where whoever coined that phrase would presumably have placed Israel) - it's always great to see a new nation joining the world of memory sports! And I didn't mention that the sheer volume of French competitors was record-breaking too - this is a country that's really going from strength to strength.
And the race for second place behind the all-conquering Andrea was exactly as exciting as I said it would be - luckily, I managed to get a solid 100 digits in spoken numbers, leaving me still in contention after only 130 in images (I really must learn how to do that, one day - as I explained to everyone who asked, the discipline didn't exist when I was last in training for memory competitions), and it all came down to speed cards. On the first trial, I did a 'safe' 34.18 seconds, which really turned out not to be very safe at all - I misread the third pair of cards, 2 of hearts and 8 of spades, as 'chef', which is 2 of spades and 8 of hearts, and fortunately was able to remember all the others and deduce the mistake I must have made. It's strange, though - that's not a kind of mistake I ever make, but I suppose it's the kind of thing that's bound to creep in when I'm so out of practice.
Preeda had done a 40.48 seconds, though, and was slightly ahead of me, so I needed to improve on that time if I was going to get second place (Andrea had done 26.99, which is very leisurely and relaxed for him - I can't wait to see the kind of things he does when he's up against an opponent who can give him a run for his money!). I decided I might as well try to beat that old personal record I was talking about, so went as fast as possible... and still only managed to stop the clock at 25.31 seconds. I'm slowing down in my old age.
The recall, though, was wonderful - lots of gaps in my memory, putting them together in the end with thoughts along the lines of "well, all those images are ones I might possibly have seen, and I've used up all the cards, and I suppose it's at least possible that they occurred in that order..." and it turned out to be all correct! I've never in my life produced a correct pack that I'd been so dubious about!
So, perhaps undeservedly, I just managed to nab the silver medal spot. Andrea was of course the brilliant winner-by-miles, Guillaume took the title of French Champion, and the full results can be seen on the IAM stats site. Looking forward to the next one!
| 1 | ANDREA MUZII | Italy | 7604 (7604) |
| 2 | BEN PRIDMORE | England | 4338 (4338) |
| 3 | PREEDA HONGPIMOLMAS | Thailand | 4207 (4207) |
| 4 | SUSANNE HIPPAUF | Germany | 4009 (4009) |
| 5 | NORBERT REULKE | Germany | 3758 (3758) |
| 6 | SILVIO DI FABIO | Italy | 3722 (3722) |
| 7 | GUILLAUME PETIT-JEAN | France | 3500 (3500) |
| 8 | LARS CHRISTIANSEN | Denmark | 3070 (3070) |
| 9 | MICHAEL KARIUS | France | 2890 (2890) |
| 10 | DANIEL EVANS | Wales | 2732 (2732) |
| 11 | JOHNNY (JUAN) BRIONES | USA | 2727 (2727) |
| 12 | FLORIAN MANICARDI | France | 2661 (2661) |
| 13 | YVES BLANCHARD | France | 2262 (2262) |
| 14 | SEBASTIEN MARTINEZ | France | 2174 (2174) |
| 15 | LEO LEBARQUE | France | 2111 (2111) |
| 16 | DANIEL FOGEL | Israel | 2053 (2053) |
| 17 | ARNAUD FEGUEUX | France | 1966 (1966) |
| 18 | VICTOR SEGOND | France | 1667 (1667) |
| 19 | PIERRE BRUZI | France | 1644 (1644) |
| 20 | YANN CAUMARTIN | France | 1466 (1466) |
| 21 | DIMITRI HEIDET | France | 1188 (1188) |
| 22 | MAXIME BERGER | France | 786 (786) |
| 23 | JOEL LICCARDI | France | 675 (675) |
| 24 | ROMAIN PERNIER | France | 644 (644) |
| 25 | JIMMY RICAUT | France | 619 (619) |
3 comments:
write a less Zoomy-focused version for the IAM website
Personally I think your the Zoomy focused account of what goes through your mind when competing at that level is the best bit of your post and that you came in, with no practice, second to an Italian kid not old enough to drink in most US states.
As to the other names on the result's list i was "entzückt" ('delighted') was we say in German to learn that 4th place went to a German cop from my old stamping ground. Possible even that she arrested me at some point.
Susanne the "Pi-lizistin", as they apparently call her in German! I don't think she's ever arrested anyone at a memory competition, but it's nice to know that she could if she wanted to, while reciting pi to thousands of digits at the same time!
Yes I caught that rather painful-even-by-German-standards pun while reading the newspaper articles about her. Mind you, i can't talk cos I still find Germans saying "We must calculate pee" funny...'Allo 'Allo has much to answer for! In good teutonic fashion I will now explain that joke for anyone passing what doesn't speak German; Germans say 'pi' as 'pee' and when they talk about higher mathematics in *English * they invariably keep that pronunciation cos 'pi' is a universal term, jawohl!.
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