The Finnish Goldpanning Championships were to start on Thursday, so I arrived a bit early, so I could go and do some real gold digging before the competition. From Monday to Wednesday me and my dad, not forgetting Wanda THE dog, woke up early...ish...and went to work.
Dad tought me how to drive the big ass digger and oh boy it was fun!! I was told that I did it well, so apparently the soil was moving the right way.. But don't worry, I won't be leaving my job as a hair dresser though..=D And we did find some gold as well..let me tell you, I've never seen so many nuggets at the same time at the same place.. ;)
On Thursday the competition started. My first time in the pool wasn't gonna be until on Friday, so I had time to say hello to old friends and get my head to the game.
Then Friday came...I got through to the semifinals, but I didn't have a good feeling about the competition at all..I felt everything went the way it wasn't supposed to go. Semifinals were held the same day, and it was awful! I picked the nuggets like three or four times (they're supposed to get to the tube just with one picking!) and when I moved my pan to the edge of the pool, I accidentally pushed some water in the pan with my rubber boot and had to get all the nuggets together...all over again. I can tell you the words weren't pretty. I still got to the finals, which was a surprise..at least to me. Well, I had time to get my head together for the final, but cause that day had gone...well...badly, I didn't have any hopes...maybe just the top 15 was on my mind....
Well...time for the final. The other finalists were such a good panners, and I just looked around...not a chance. I just go and do my best. Anurag was placed next to me (current European champion) and I thought that, well if I go with about the same pace than she, I might have a quite a good time... And then it was over. I had gotten up before Anurag, and was actually the sixth that got up..I found all the nuggets...but this time as well, I picked the nuggets three times. I found my way to the audience, where there was a screen where they would put the results person by person...at that time I thought that I might be like fifth or something...but the panners before me one after the other had found less nuggets than me, and at that point my heart started to pound harder and harder. The result finally was, that only one of the five panners before me had the same amount of nuggets than me, and that meant that I won the second place. So...I'm the second best female gold panner in Finland..at the moment. =)
That evening we had a little party at Lauttaoja (as usual after the Finnish Championships).. Lauttaoja got like 10 medals, so we had a good reason..=)
I don't know yet about next years competition...I'm tempted to travel to Italy, where there will be the World Gold Panning Championships 2013...It's one way or the other....but I promise I'll try to make my medal a bit brighter in one of the competitions!!
On Thursday the competition started. My first time in the pool wasn't gonna be until on Friday, so I had time to say hello to old friends and get my head to the game.
Then Friday came...I got through to the semifinals, but I didn't have a good feeling about the competition at all..I felt everything went the way it wasn't supposed to go. Semifinals were held the same day, and it was awful! I picked the nuggets like three or four times (they're supposed to get to the tube just with one picking!) and when I moved my pan to the edge of the pool, I accidentally pushed some water in the pan with my rubber boot and had to get all the nuggets together...all over again. I can tell you the words weren't pretty. I still got to the finals, which was a surprise..at least to me. Well, I had time to get my head together for the final, but cause that day had gone...well...badly, I didn't have any hopes...maybe just the top 15 was on my mind....Well...time for the final. The other finalists were such a good panners, and I just looked around...not a chance. I just go and do my best. Anurag was placed next to me (current European champion) and I thought that, well if I go with about the same pace than she, I might have a quite a good time... And then it was over. I had gotten up before Anurag, and was actually the sixth that got up..I found all the nuggets...but this time as well, I picked the nuggets three times. I found my way to the audience, where there was a screen where they would put the results person by person...at that time I thought that I might be like fifth or something...but the panners before me one after the other had found less nuggets than me, and at that point my heart started to pound harder and harder. The result finally was, that only one of the five panners before me had the same amount of nuggets than me, and that meant that I won the second place. So...I'm the second best female gold panner in Finland..at the moment. =)
That evening we had a little party at Lauttaoja (as usual after the Finnish Championships).. Lauttaoja got like 10 medals, so we had a good reason..=)
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| Finnish Gold Panning Championships 2012 1st place Pia Turunen 2nd place ME!! 3rd place Anurag Lehtonen |
I don't know yet about next years competition...I'm tempted to travel to Italy, where there will be the World Gold Panning Championships 2013...It's one way or the other....but I promise I'll try to make my medal a bit brighter in one of the competitions!!
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