LADIES WORLD CHAMPS GLORY FOR SAM AND KAYLEIGH

The Ladies World Champs individual crown remains on English soil for another year after Samantha Sim blitzed the field on Portugal’s River Mondego – 12 months after her teammate Helen Dagnall took gold!

Joining Samantha on the podium was Kayleigh Dowd in bronze medal position, divided only by Netherlands angler Anja Groot.

The news wasn’t quite as good on the team front however, as after a promising first day, England finished in fifth place with 51 points, Spain winning on 42.5.

Held on the river at Penacova, England always knew the fishing was going to be tough, and so it proved, with 2 kilos being a massive weight. Borga were the main fish (a fish that looks like a barbel and a dace) alongside a few sun perch and gudgeon and on day one, England’s 21 points was a fine start, putting them in third spot. However, a few poor pegs in the day two draw condemned the team to dropping down a couple of places at the end as they scored 30 points.

Samantha led the way with a section win and a second for individual gold, Kayleigh banking two seconds for her third spot. Chloe Raynor scored second on day one and eighth on day two, Sarah Taylor adding seven and nine points, while outgoing World Champ Helen Dagnall scored a pair of nine-point finishes.

Sam’s golden weekend began with taking on peg 4 in E section, the same peg that she had practiced on a few days beforehand. She’d caught borga then, so was confident that the fish would still be there. Slow and steady was the key, fishing one line with potted in groundbait after an initial balling in at the start. Finishing on 28 fish, Samanatha weighed in 1-710, which despite the worry of a dominant end peg, was more than enough to win the section.

After the day two draw, Manager Dave Brooks Jnr handed Samantha peg 3 in A section – the same peg that Kayleigh Dowd had fished to take second in section the day before!

However, there was still the end peg to contend with, especially as former World Champion Anja Groot was sat on it.

There were more borga in this area though, and fishing the same way as the day before, Samantha went fish for fish with those around her, ending with 72 borga for 2-735 and second, Anja winning the section. However, with none of the section winners from the day before bettering her day two score and none of the second in sections from Saturday winning on Sunday, her three points were enough to see her crowned champion!