Changes

== SMK World Championship 2011==

== SMK World Championship 2011==

After his succesful ODB, Florent won the CDM 2011, his third SMK World Championship title in a row and his fifth [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF]/CDE/CDM overall win in a row. He also claimed the gold medal in the GP competition for the sixth consecutive time, a record like no other in the history of [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] events and one that is unlikely to be equaled or beaten by anyone other than the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_people French] master himself. With 36 participants, the attendance rates of the event picked up a little bit again compared to previous years. Once again the [http://www.ffsmk.org/?task=results&year=2011 CDM], this time held in Santeny, welcomed its doors to a variety of karters from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands the Netherlands], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland Zwitzerland], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain Spain], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England England], the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA USA] and of course some of the finest talent from the hosting country [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France France]. Sadly some of the strongest players, such as [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre L'Hoëst], [[Harold Christensen]], [[Julien Holmiere]] and [[Geoffrey Label]] did not participate in all the tournaments or in the case of [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre], none at all. This time there was a camping element thrown into the mix, with the majority of the participants sleeping in tents surrounding the venue. This was nothing new to Florent, who traditionally sets up his tent to sleep in solitude during Championships.

After his succesful ODB, Florent won the CDM 2011, his third SMK World Championship title in a row and his fifth [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF]/CDE/CDM overall win in a row. He also claimed the gold medal in the GP competition for the sixth consecutive time, a record like no other in the history of [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] events and one that is unlikely to be equaled or beaten by anyone other than the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_people French] master himself. With 36 participants, the attendance rates of the event picked up a little bit again compared to previous years. Once again the [http://www.ffsmk.org/?task=results&year=2011 CDM], this time held in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santeny Santeny], welcomed its doors to a variety of karters from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands the Netherlands], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland Zwitzerland], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain Spain], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England England], the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA USA] and of course some of the finest talent from the hosting country [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France France]. Sadly some of the strongest players, such as [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre L'Hoëst], [[Harold Christensen]], [[Julien Holmiere]] and [[Geoffrey Label]] did not participate in all the tournaments or in the case of [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre], none at all. This time there was a camping element thrown into the mix, with the majority of the participants sleeping in tents surrounding the venue. This was nothing new to Florent, who traditionally sets up his tent to sleep in solitude during Championships.

Florent started off by winning the [[Time Trial]] 1-try event with crushing dominance. After being victorious in all the sub-stages (from qualifiers to semi finals), he landed a great 59”58 on [[MC1]] in the final, leaving no chance to his surprise opponent in the final [[Guillaume Leviach]]. His strongest rival [[Sami]] was already lagging behind in the general rankings due to some disastrous crashes in the [[GV1]] semi final. For the third consecutive year, Florent did not manage to obtain the gold medal in Match Race. After a virtually spotless qualification phase he faced a surprising semi final exit after a match against an unchained [[Karel van Duijvenboden]]. This repeat match of the famous quarter final of 2010  was another thriller, which culminated in a very tense double LB finish on [[MC2]], this time with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_people the Dutchman] coming out on top. Florent redeemed himself by cruising to a 9-2 win in the bronze medal play-off versus [[Geoffrey Label]], but most observants will agree that Florent did not show his true level in MR this year. Contrarily, Florent enjoyed a very prolific Battle Mode tournament, winning a silver medal despite not having practiced this mode much at all this year. [[Geoffrey Label]] surprisingly managed to eliminate the reigning BM World Champion [[Drew Blumfield]] in the quarter finals, meaning the main  obstacle that prevented Florent from reaching the BM finals in previous years was removed. However, [[Geoffrey Label]] managed to narrowly defeat Florent in a climactic final, featuring a dramatic 11-10 scoreline and both players being down to their last balloon on match-point. History had repeated itself as a high finish in the BM tournament, combined with an early quarter final exit of his rival [[Sami]] on the hands of a rampant [[Harold Christensen]], meant Florent was cleanly in the lead after BM day, with only the GP tournament left. Florent decided to use the heavy weight characters in all cups for GP this year. After the GP final of 2010, which he drove with the brothers on some cups, he had sensed that he was more vulnerable to body-checks and losing out to full speed potential when exposed to Sami, who equips himself with the big guys everywhere. Florent's character switch was a rewarding one as he strikingly underlined his absolute dominance in GP on the final day of the CDM 2011. After one odd defeat in the group stage, he went on to beat Sami in the early morning final with a convincing 5-2 scoreline, including some near WR level performances on tracks like [[MC4]]. Combined with his dominating Belgian Open win, 2011 had once again been a very succesful karting year for Florent.

Florent started off by winning the [[Time Trial]] 1-try event with crushing dominance. After being victorious in all the sub-stages (from qualifiers to semi finals), he landed a great 59”58 on [[MC1]] in the final, leaving no chance to his surprise opponent in the final [[Guillaume Leviach]]. His strongest rival [[Sami]] was already lagging behind in the general rankings due to some disastrous crashes in the [[GV1]] semi final. For the third consecutive year, Florent did not manage to obtain the gold medal in Match Race. After a virtually spotless qualification phase he faced a surprising semi final exit after a match against an unchained [[Karel van Duijvenboden]]. This repeat match of the famous quarter final of 2010  was another thriller, which culminated in a very tense double LB finish on [[MC2]], this time with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_people the Dutchman] coming out on top. Florent redeemed himself by cruising to a 9-2 win in the bronze medal play-off versus [[Geoffrey Label]], but most observants will agree that Florent did not show his true level in MR this year. Contrarily, Florent enjoyed a very prolific Battle Mode tournament, winning a silver medal despite not having practiced this mode much at all this year. [[Geoffrey Label]] surprisingly managed to eliminate the reigning BM World Champion [[Drew Blumfield]] in the quarter finals, meaning the main  obstacle that prevented Florent from reaching the BM finals in previous years was removed. However, [[Geoffrey Label]] managed to narrowly defeat Florent in a climactic final, featuring a dramatic 11-10 scoreline and both players being down to their last balloon on match-point. History had repeated itself as a high finish in the BM tournament, combined with an early quarter final exit of his rival [[Sami]] on the hands of a rampant [[Harold Christensen]], meant Florent was cleanly in the lead after BM day, with only the GP tournament left. Florent decided to use the heavy weight characters in all cups for GP this year. After the GP final of 2010, which he drove with the brothers on some cups, he had sensed that he was more vulnerable to body-checks and losing out to full speed potential when exposed to Sami, who equips himself with the big guys everywhere. Florent's character switch was a rewarding one as he strikingly underlined his absolute dominance in GP on the final day of the CDM 2011. After one odd defeat in the group stage, he went on to beat Sami in the early morning final with a convincing 5-2 scoreline, including some near WR level performances on tracks like [[MC4]]. Combined with his dominating Belgian Open win, 2011 had once again been a very succesful karting year for Florent.