Spey O Rama World Championships, Golden Gate Angling Club, San Francisco April 9th-11th
11/04/2010
Gordon Armstrong, World Champion takes top honours in San Francisco.
Carron sent a strong seven man team to compete in the annual Spey O Rama casting competition in San Francisco.
This casting facility is simply stunning and had been prepared to the highest standard for the event. This multi discipline event is growing year on year, with a very talented entry list with somewhere in the region of 35 top class competitors from all around the world taking part.
The Carron Team enjoying the Californian sunshine.
Andrew Toft, Gordon Armstrong, Iain Gardner, James Chalmers, Gerard Downey, Ruairi Costello and Mark Chalmers
The qualifying rounds took place on Saturday with the best 10 casters moving onto the Grand final on Sunday. The drawing of the lots in the GGACC lodge proved to be a tense affair, as the weather, which was a headwind was forecast to die away as the morning wore on.
The qualifying rounds were a delight to watch as the Carron boys really shone, they became more familiar with the adverse conditions and chose their casts wisely, this gave three of them in particular fantastic qualifying results.
Qualifying scores for all 4 disciplines.
The Met Office had promised that Sunday's weather was to be very wet with winds gusting up to 40 mph, and that's exactly how it was. It was miserable.
But the show had to go on - all the casters prepared themselves for a really difficult final.
The conditions played a big part in the reduced distances achieved, as the winds were very unpredictable and the rain lashed down.
The Carron Team did exceptionally well, taking the top 3 places.
What a fantastic achievement boys, well done to you all.
Final placings were.
| From | Left | From | Right | |||
| Name | L/shoulder | R/shoulder | L/shoulder | R/shoulder | Total | Place |
| G.Armstrong | 142 | 159 | 130 | 148 | 579 | 1st |
| G.Downey | 144 | 152 | 122 | 145 | 563 | 2nd |
| R.Costello | 146 | 130 | 143 | 139 | 558 | 3rd |
The rain came down so hard that for the first time in the competition's history, the prizes were presented inside the prestigious GGACC Lodge.
This made the award ceremony a little cramped but the speakers relayed it to everyone getting wet outside.
The Carron 1,2,3. or "The Carron Clean Sweep"
1st Gordon Armstrong(on the right), 2nd Gerard Downey(on the left) and 3rd Ruairi Costello(middle).
Well done to all the Carron boys who took part, we are very proud of your wonderful efforts.