On The Road to Denver

Mark Dennis, Moncton NB

(most recent entries at top)

 

World Sport Stacking Championships

Denver, Colorado

Apr 18-19 2009

Mark’s Trip – April 16 – 20

 

 

Tuesday April 21

Mark was in two newspapers today

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/643277

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/642961

 

Sunday April 19 – Finals

Mark had a great day, winning 5 medals and 3 trophies, with the potential for 4 new Canadian records.

 

Event

Time (sec)

Place

Category

3-3-3

2.02*

1

Age 13 (4th overall)

3-6-3

3.88

10

Age 13

Cycle

7.28

1

Age 13

Doubles

9.16*

4

14 Under (9th overall)

Parent Child Doubles

11.78*

4

Parent Child

Timed 3-6-3 Relay

15.96*

4

Team

*Potential Canadian Overall Record

 

Thank you for all of your prayers, well-wishes, email, and Facebook messages.

 

Jan and Mark arrive in Moncton at about 11pm tomorrow.

 

Saturday April 18 -- Preliminaries

Jan writes:

“We had a great day!!! The other stackers arrived. Ryan from BC was supposed to fly in at 8:20 pm, they were delayed until after 10. Kevin from Alberta was supposed to arrive at 5:55 pm. Their flight was cancelled, they got another flight to Phoenix. It tried to fly to Denver, they circled Denver for 2 hours then were rerouted to Colorado Springs. They spent the night in the airport, then were bussed to Denver this morning. They arrived for the opening of the preliminaries.

 

“Tyler (14) and Kevin (9) both advanced to all the individual events and our team advanced the 3-6-3 Timed Relay. We had a good showing in the head to head relays but did not get any medals. In the International Stack off we won against Philippines, lost to team Germany (it had to go to a tie breaker), won against New Zealand, then lost to the Philippines. It was a great showing for a team that stacked together for the first time today!!

 

“By the way - 18,217 steps and counting today!”

 

Mark’s Preliminary Results 

Mark advances to the finals in six categories.

 

NOTE – preliminary times are used only to advance and are not counted in the finals or to establish records

 

Event

Time (sec)

Place

Category

Top # to Advance

3-3-3

2.10

1

Age 13

10

3-6-3

2.56

2

Age 13

10

Cycle

7.86

4

Age 13

10

Doubles

9.22

3

14 Under

5

Timed 3-6-3 Relay

15.19

4

14 Under

4

Parent Child Doubles

10.91

3

Parent Child

5

 

Friday April 17

Jan writes,

 

“It rained most of the night. All morning it took turns between snow and rain. Right now it is raining and any snow that had accumulated is mostly gone. Hopefully it will stay this way.

 

“Just after 9 we took Mark to the other hotel. A bunch of guys were stacking in the lobby. Steven Purruganan [the world record holder] noticed Mark right off. Tyler was there as well and he seems like a nice kid. I checked with his chaperone and it was okay for Mark to hang out with them for the day. At 3:30 we will go to the Coliseum. As you can imagine Mark is on cloud nine!!!!

 

PART 2 (came in Saturday morning)

“Mark had a great time stacking at the hotel. Around 4pm the snow got fairly bad but eased up later. We went to the international Meet and Greet. Fantastic time, met teams from Germany, USA, UK, Philippines, New Zealand, Switzerland, Columbia, and Singapore. There were also reps from Ireland and Norway, team Taiwan should be there today.

 

“I haven't heard anything from my other 2 stackers from Team Canada, so I assume they are here. That would be a blessing. West of us, in the mountains, they have received up to 3 1/2 FEET of snow of very heavy snow. Some parts of the highway have been closed due to accidents and in one place an avalanche! Here in Denver we have ground cover but it is misting.

 

“Today is the preliminaries. Mark is feeling good. We are getting a ride to the Coliseum with one of the American parents, from California, and yes he has driven in snow!”

 

Thursday April 16

Jan and Mark arrived safely in Denver and report their hotel is nice.

 

Jan writes:

“Flights were pretty good, and as Mark wrote the hotel is nice. Mark wanted to go out to Tyler's [a team member] hotel but between our fatigue and the rain/freezing rain we didn't think it was wise. We have plans for Mark to go out to the hotel to stack most of the day with Tyler and members of Team USA.

 

“The biggest concern we all have right now is the weather. There is a storm system moving in which could mean, at the least, rain and up to 3-5 inches of snow or, at the worst, 8-12 inches (hopefully that is in the mountains). We've been hearing a lot of mixed reports. I don't think it could cancel the tournament but could cause attendance to be much lower. It may make it hard for stackers from BC and Alberta to get here on time if it's that messy. Please pray that the storm passes quickly with minor inconveniences.”

 

Wednesday April 15

Mark interviewed live for Information Morning on CBC Radio

 

Tuesday April 14

Mark featured in the Times Transcript (Moncton) and Telegraph Journal (Saint John)

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/front/article/634502

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/634365

 

John Betts, our provincial MLA, did a congratulatory message in the Legislative Assembly this afternoon

 

CBC (Moncton) radio called – Mark will be interviewed at 6:45 tomorrow morning

 

Monday, April 13

Mark is featured in Brian Cormier’s  blog. Brian is a columnist at the Moncton newspaper, Times and Transcript.

http://www.briancormier.blogspot.com/

 

Mark interviewed by Adam Huras from the Saint John newspaper, Telegraph-Journal.

 

We received a call from Bob Fox at World Sport Stacking. We have the final member of Team Canada confirmed. Also, Mark will be the flag bearer at the opening ceremonies. Jan will be the coach.

 

Mark interviewed by Eric Lewis from the Times and Transcript.

 

Saturday, Apr 11 – 8am – 1:00pm

Fundraising and demo at Moncton Market. We gave contact info to a videographer from CTV news and to Jim DeWolfe, a Senior Goodwill Ambassador for the Province of New Brunswick.

 

Wednesday, Apr 8

We design a Canadian stacking logo using cups

 

Saturday, Apr 4 – 8am – 1:30pm

Fundraising and demo at Dieppe Market.

 

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Mark’s Results and Records

2nd –  3-6-3- Age 11 – Worlds 2008

3rd – Cycle – Age 11 – Worlds 2008

Canadian Overall National Record Holder – 3-3-3, 3-6-3, Cycle, Parent / Child Doubles