Drennan Team England team travelled to the World Angling Championships in Hungary this weekend and returned with an Individual Gold medal for Alan Scotthorne, a record 5th time.
The England Star from Yorkshire has fished a number of World Championships over the years and took his international fishing career to new heights as he battled against a strong Italian and Hungarian team to bring the Gold medal home.
On the first day of fishing, Alan was competing on the peg next to one of the best Italian anglers making it a real high pressure environment and forcing Alan to produce some of his best fishing for a long time finishing 2nd in his section.
On day two of the competition Alan was initially apprehensive as he drew a peg which had not produced the previous day, however he succeeded in finishing 3rd in his section with a combined weight over the two days of 10.170kg. With 5 points in total, Alan showed the level of difficulty of the venue as the normal points scores for individual winners are 1, 2 or 3 points in total.
Gold medalist Alan commented, “Everything went really well over the weekend and I think I fished my best match for a long time here in Hungary. A few of the competitors have won the Gold medal once or twice but now I have won it five times hopefully that bar is a little higher.”
In second place was Normundas Gridovskis from Latvia who finished with 6 points and a final weight of 8.790kg. In third was another home country angler Lee Edwards, from the Welsh team who finished with 6 points like the Latvian but only 7.790kg in weight.
The team could not quite emulate their previous successes at these championships and finished in 5th place behind European Champions Italy who won Gold. The team struggled on day one, ending in 7th place overall before coming back on day two to finish second. Unfortunately their efforts on the second day were not enough.
The winning team was Italy, who added to their European crown with a 57 point performance and combined weight of 39.480kg. Their nearest rival was Belgium with 78 points with a weight of 33.920kg who were followed by Hungary with 86 points and 35.160kg. A successful championship for Wales was rounded off with 4th place, just missing out on a medal with 86.5 points and 32.500kg.
NFA International Events Director, Dick Clegg OBE commented, “Although the team result was not as we would have liked, individually everyone did exceptionally well, none more so than Alan. On a whole the competition was good and well organised. It was a shame that the fishing was not as good as it has been in the past on the venue. Overall though on the day the best team won!
The English Individual Gold medal cements England as one of the finest angling nations in the world with the Sensas Team England U 17s winning Silver and having the best U17 angler in the world in Matt Godfrey who won Gold in the World Youth Championships earlier this year in the Czech Republic.
