Mark’s Denver
Trip Daily Update
Wednesday
April 9
Mark and Jan arrived
home yesterday morning.
Today we received word
from the CTV Atlantic show “Live at Five” that Mark will appear on the show
Monday, April 14, to do a live demonstration.
Monday Aril 7 – Final Results – Sent to OnFire
list
Summary
of the Week
Our youngest son Mark
travelled to Denver, Colorado, last week to compete in the World Sport Stacking
Championships. Over 1000 competitors came from 8 countries.
On
Saturday, the preliminary competitions were held. Mark competed in the 3-3-3,
3-6-3, and Cycle events. He did this as an individual, and also competed on a
team. He was also paired up with a guy from
To
make it through to the finals, individuals had to finish in the top ten. Mark
was knocked down the leader board in the 3-3-3, but made it through in the
3-6-3 and Cycle.
Teams
had to finish in the top five. Mark’s team finished sixth.
On
Sunday, he competed in the finals, winning second in the 3-6-3, and third in
the Cycle.
His
times were 2.91 secs and 8.25 secs.
Once verified, they will be new Canadian records for his age and overall.
The
cycle is considered the marquis event because it is more elaborate, and so
there are trophies for the top three Cycle winners. Mark will bring home a
medal and a trophy.
As
I write, “Flightview” tells me they are somewhere
between
Needless
to say, we are very proud. We’ve told lots of people and lots of people have
called, emailed, and Facebooked to pass along their
congratulations. This morning I spent a fair amount of time preparing a press
release and contacting news outlets.
While
in Denver Mark and Jan and her mother did some sightseeing. They saw the World
Sport Stacking Headquarters and met the key people. He sat in a Ferrari at the
Denver Ferrari dealer. They visited Red Rocks, an outdoor concert amphitheatre.
And they visited a museum and aquarium. Finally, Mark got his t-shirt signed by
many of the worlds best stackers, people that he has
admired and drawn inspiration from.
Sunday
April 6 Finals
Summary
Mark placed second
in the 3-6-3 for his age category with a time of 2:91 secs.
Mark placed third in
the cycle for his age category with a time of 8:25 secs.
Both of these are new
Canadian records.
We are soooooooo proud of Mark!!!!!!!
Jan
writes:
Hi Everyone,
Mark had a great day. If you have kids or
are in contact with kids at
Thankful Mark did not make it to the 3-3-3
finals. It took the officials a bit to get organized, because of some mistakes
partway though that finals they had to stop and redo.
Mark would have been upset had he gotten a good score and had to redo then
gotten a poorer score.
Meanwhile because it took so long my nerves
started to get tight so I went for a long walk, checking in from time to time
to see how things were going. It didn't seem to bother Mark too much.
3-6-3 went more smoothly. Since he was 10th
in preliminaries he and the person in 9th place went first, at two separate
tables. After the 2 practice he scored a 2.91. The other 2 were higher. This
was sufficient to earn his 2nd place, silver medal and a new unofficial
Canadian record (old 3.34)
The Cycle finals was
a little more nerve-wracking. His best score happened on his 3rd and last try,
8.25. This secured him 3rd place and he was awarded a trophy. It also was an
unofficial Canadian record (8.91 previous). In this category he was beat by 2
boys from
Mark is very pleased with these results.
With that work done he was able to relax and enjoy the final events. In the
Tournament of Champions the top 3 overall in each stack 3-3-3, 3-6-3, and cycle
are given another opportunity to better their scores on stage. The highlight
was seeing a small 10year boy break the world record for the cycle twice. He
had broken it earlier in the day lowering it from 6.52 to 6.50. On stage in try
2 he lowered it to 6.33 then in try 3 to 6.21, truly amazing! I'm sure it is
probably posted on YouTube in the next day or two if
you would like to see it.
A big thank you to everyone
for your prayers, support and for some financial help. This trip has greatly enriched Mark's life
and fulfilled many of his current dreams.
Blessings, Jan
Saturday April 5 Preliminary
Competition
Summary:
Mark has qualified for
the finals in two categories: individual 3-6-3 and Cycle. His times were 3:18
and 8:16 respectively.
Only the top 10
competitors get through in each individual category.
His relay team did well, and even beat Team USA1 once in the Cycle. Unfortunately
only the top 5 teams go through to finals.
Mark was the only
Canadian to make it to finals. Nine attended from
Mark is hopeful for
tomorrow. He goes into the competition placing 10th in 3-6-3 and 3rd
in the Cycle, but the leader board is erased for the finals. Preliminary times
do not count for final or record times.
Mark met a number of
other famous stackers, including Brennan and Kitt
Fox, sons of Sport Stacking president Bill Fox, and brothers to Emily Fox. At
one point Mark competed beside Brennan Fox in a relay event.
Mark will not come
home empty handed. Competitors receive medals for a top ten finish, and
trophies for top three in the cycle event.
Jan
writes:
Well we have had quite a day and are
exhausted! We arrived at the Coliseum at 7:20 am, the doors opened at 8:00.
Mark spent his time warming up until the
preliminaries started at 9:15. When Mark went to do his individual times he was
fairly nervous. He made it through, a little disappointed with his times,
particularly on the 3-3-3. As the day progressed we saw on a lieder board the
top 10 in each age division as they results came in. At one point Mark was
excited to see that he was 10th in the 3-3-3 but unfortunately later he got
bumped off.
On the bright side he placed 10th in the
3-6-3 and 3rd in the cycle preliminaries, so will advance to the finals in
both. In the finals the previous scores sre wiped out
and they stack in reverse order. The top ten in the 3-6-3 are all guaranteed
medals and the top three in the cycle receive a trophy, 4-10 medals.
In the doubles division only the top 5
advance. We were 3rd at one point then were bumped off. In the 18&under
division (his partner was 17) they missed the top 5 as well.
In the Timed 3-6-3 relay he was with a good
group of guys, evenly matched in ability. They did well but did not qualify in
the 15-18 division (oldest stacker 15). They competed in a couple of other
contests, did respectably but didn't win. Mark said one on the highlights was
racing against team
At the end of the day we watched the
International Challenge with 2 teams from
Tomorrow should be a much lighter day for
Mark. He barely had a break from 8 till about 2:30. He will only have the 2
events then be able to enjoy the overall events that are being filmed for TV.
Even with the disappointments of the day I think in the end all the great
things that happened will shine through. The back of his t-shirt is getting
full of signatures, friendships formed on the computer have been strengthened,
and lots of happy memories have been made.
Well that's about all for now. Stay tuned
for more tomorrow.
Blessings,
Jan
Friday Night April 4
Jan writes:
Wow, what a day. We have another chapter in
the continuing saga of finding Mark a doubles partner. WSSA called this morning
and said that they had found Mark a partner that was closer in ability,...from the Japanese team. They found another partner for
the SD boy.
After lunch we headed down to
Soon after one of the guys on his relay
team arrived, Joseph from
The
Around 4:15 Mark started to get tired, then the German team arrived. He got several autographs,
pictures and opportunities to stack various people. I have some great video of
Mark stacking with 2 German boys and his friend from the
Just before we left the world record holder
showed up and Mark got his autograph on his shirt. It was fantastic to get so
many pictures and autographs from people today when it wasn't as crazy as it
will be tomorrow. We were also able to buy his tournament t-shirt. Going to the
Coliseum today also helped him to know what to expect. He felt very good and is
looking forward to tomorrow
As you can imagine Mark is a little weary.
We're going to veg tonight so that he can rest. We
will be at the Coliseum by 8:00 am tomorrow and won't leave until 5:30 pm.
We'll
keep you posted with his preliminary results tomorrow. Thanks for you prayers.
Friday Morning, April 4, 2008
Jan writes:
Had a bit of a weird night. An hour or so
after Mark went to sleep he woke up and threw up. He didn't seem to have a fever.
I was a little worried that he might be coming down with something but he went
right back to sleep and seems fine this morning. I think his system may have
gotten overloaded.
This morning while
we were getting ready for breakfast we saw a live Sport Stacking feature on the
local news promoting the tournament. They filmed it from the office where we
had been. They had a couple of guys from
When we were at the
office the other day Mark bought their regular gray Speed Stacks t-shirt. He's
going to wear it today and try to get it signed by his favorites. Should be fun.
Channel 9 News
NOTE – this is not the report Jan mentioned, but interesting
report today about Sport Stacking.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Jan
writes:
We just got back from the Museum. It was fantastic.
We saw dinosaur fossils, minerals, crystals, gems, mummies, and lots of animals
(stuffed of course). We saw a planetarium movie on black holes (screen like
IMAX dome). Later we saw an IMAX movie called "The
Mark is practicing. He now has a new
partner from
We’re not planning anything specific for tomorrow
so that Mark can spend the later part of the day at the Coliseum.
Denver
Museum of Nature and Science http://www.dmns.org/main/en/
Wednesday April 2, 2008
They went to the Speed
Stacking headquarters where they met president Bob Fox
and his wife Jill. Their daughter Emily is Mark's stacking inspiration. They
toured the hq, saw where team
They went from there and visited Red Rocks, which has a famous amphitheatre and fabulous view. The air was very thin there, but a number of athletes were training.
And they also went to
a Ferrari dealership. Mark is a huge Ferrari fan and got to sit in a convertible
F430, his favourite car, after doing a stacking demo for the staff. He was so pumped as we talked. What a day.
Here are some links:
Speed Stacks - http://www.speedstacks.com/
World Sport Stacking
Association - http://www.worldsportstackingassociation.org/
Emily Fox - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Fox,
http://www.gophersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=38669&SPID=3303&DB_OEM_ID=8400&ATCLID=261520&Q_SEASON=2006
Red Rocks - http://www.redrocksonline.com/index.asp
Red Rocks - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rocks_Amphitheatre
Ferrari of