Pool Player * W.P.B.S.A World Snooker Coach * SightRight UK Certified Coach
Sponsored By Tiger Cues (USA)
Daniel Joe Baker Profile
Full Name: Daniel Baker
Birth date: 20th March 1980
Born in: London, England
Nickname: 'Dangerous'
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Sponsors: Tiger Products & Jam Up Apparel
Jordans Snooker and Pool Club
Equipment:
Playing Cue: Tiger HD Series Cue - HD-2G (Green)
Shaft: Tiger Pro (12mm)
Break Cue: Tiger Impact
Jump Cue: Tiger Wings
Tip: Tiger Sniper
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English Pool Cue: 9mm ash shaft with ebony splicing. Maker unknown.
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2019 Andy Mercer Memorial - Shane Van Boening racking the balls on the table behind.
Daniel first picked up a cue at the age of 6 years old with his first table being a 4 foot kids snooker table which was bought for him as a Christmas present. He quickly fell in love with the game and by the age of 12 having already owned several pool/snooker tables for home use had finally ventured onto the full size 12 by 6 snooker tables at his local club. Daniel's ability and passion developed quickly and within a year of playing on the full size table had managed to compile his first 50 break and by age 15 had compiled his first century break.
It was also at age 15 that Daniel had his first taste of English pool, He went to the local Football Club 1 Saturday afternoon with a friend, they happened to have a pool table there, Daniel put his coin down for the winner stay on pub format and managed to go unbeaten for several games, unknown to him beating a number of the local pool team players. The captain of the team approached Daniel and asked him if he would like to join the Tuesday night league team and that was Daniels entrance into competitive play.
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A lot happened in the first year of playing pool. Daniel attended the junior County trials and managed to qualify to play for London County at his first attempt. Very few players from Daniel's home town league had achieved the feat of playing at County level and Daniel was the first junior player to do so.
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Daniel joined a new local league team in his second season of playing, he was recruited to play for what was then the best team in the league, Daniel also enjoyed a great County season which saw him earn a trial to play for England.
Battling his way though the round robin system on the first day Daniel managed to make it to the final 16 players and book his spot to come back the following day, there were only 8 spots available to join the England team therefore Daniel had to win his first match which he did comfortably and earned his place in the England team and a place in the quarter finals of the tournament which you were now vying to become National Junior Champion. Unfortunately Daniel lost out in his quarter final match losing to now multiple World Pool Champion Gareth Potts.
It was a very successful event for the London Junior boys as it saw not just Daniel qualify for England but also his team mate, close friend and practice partner Martin Gould, who also qualified going on to lose in the final of the tournament. Daniel was the first and only player from his local area to go on and represent his country at English Pool.
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It was an amazing experience representing his country. He enjoyed very much competing internationally and also had the pleasure of playing along side many players that have now gone on to be greats of the game and what a team they had. A team that consisted of Gareth Potts, Chris Melling, Mick Hill, John Sullivan, Martin Gould and many other great talents.
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By age 18 Daniel was now competing mainly in team event pool, some individual pool tournaments and also putting a lot of work in on the snooker table. Daniel was now playing his pool out of the great Barking Pool Club which was a hot bed of pool that attracted the best players in the country on a regular basis. He was also practicing snooker at Ilford Snooker Club which was home to resident professionals such as Ronnie O'Sullivan, Ken Docherty, Anthony Hamilton, Ali Carter and many others.
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Daniels level on the snooker table was developing nicely and was very close to pro level, he was encouraged to give the Tour a try but at the time didn't feel he was ready so decided to wait a little longer. Plus he also had many commitments in the pool world.
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Between the years of 1998 - 2002 Daniel played for Barking pool club A and Barking Elite inter-league pool team. Barking A won the National Champion Of Champions in 1999 after a successful domestic league title.
In 2001 Barking Elite won the National Inter-league Championship beating the very dominant Trent Trophies in a 1 sided final, a great feat considering the number of champions they had in that team. Barking also sent a super team to the 1999 Minehead Festival Of Pool 5-man team event. Every great name in the country played at this prestigious event and the Barking team dispatched the very best along the way to winning the title.
(Bottom row 2nd from right)
Minehead Festival Of Pool 1999 - Winners
Barking Elite almost went on to win back to back titles losing out narrowly in the final. In the end they lost it in a playoff after the 2 teams were tied at 9 - 9. This particular championship heralded one of Daniel's most proudest performances, he only lost 1 game in the whole championship having played every match. The loss came in the final, it was his last game and he excruciatingly had to watch his opponent break and run the rack not giving Daniel a shot at the table or a chance to notch up a perfect performance. But still a great achievement.
Most of Daniel's best achievements came in team competition, he didn't really enter a high number of individual events between the years of 1998-2002. He did however still manage to win a good number of local and regional singles titles during this period and a fair few high finishes to boot both at English pool and on the amateur snooker scene. He spent 1 year on the IPA UK Pool Tour in 2001, he had a few notable wins but all in all a pretty disappointing season. It was in 2002 that he sat down and decided after a few changing events in his life that he would no longer pursue any type of career in the pocket billiards industry, he decided that he would stop playing completely, instead decided to go back and finish his education.
It was a very difficult decision because Daniel's passion and love for the game has always been very intense and since he first picked up a cue always had the ambition to become a professional player.
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He always knew that he would come back at some point in time but did not foresee that he would stay away for as long as he did.
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The only thing that made walking away a little easier was that Daniel has another passion which he was able to throw himself into. That being music.
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Daniel was absent from competitive pool and snooker for a total of 12 years having made his comeback in 2014 despite a brief mini comeback in 2010 but that only lasted a few weeks.
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During the 12 years that he was away he went back to college and studied his A-Levels, later went on to University (studying Commercial Music and achieving an upper second class degree with honours 2:1), set up a small live music production company, had a record deal with a small indie label, released 3 EPs, Sang the holiday circuit in Cyprus, worked as an event manager and more later became a HLTA teacher in primary school. Those are the highlights there's a lot of other stuff too.
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Daniel finally got the itch to play again in 2014, he had found an old friend on facebook and got in touch trying to find out what was going on in the cue world. Daniel's return to action came in the form of English pool, it seemed natural to do so as that was the game he most prominently participated in before quitting back in 2002.
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Within a few weeks of being back Daniel was offered a wild card invite to play in the London County Pool team, the stipulation for this was based on exceptional talent with past achievement thus meaning that he was not obligated to go through the systematic trial process. Interestingly enough Daniel never played County pool as an adult previously, when he had reached 18 and left the junior team he decided not to continue on into the mens team, the reason being that he went to play at Barking for their inter-league team which was in a different region to London thus making him ineligible to play for London, he would have been able to represent Essex County but had no interest in this.
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Daniel's first year back saw him finding his feet for the first few months, he had a lot of free time so was able to practice intensely, his level started to come back quickly, Daniel's first year back saw some success in the form of local league team titles and a few minor singles tournaments, His best achievement being his performance during the county fixtures, Daniel had played for the A team and managed to finish top of the player rankings in London, being the most consistent performer in the team that season, a strong feat considering it was his first season back playing after the long hiatus and he had missed the first match of the season due to not playing at that point. This earned him the player of the year award for London, once again his aptitude for team play showing itself, Daniel finished ranked overall 11th in the region and narrowly missed out on a trial for England, but nevertheless Daniel was proud of his entrance back into competitive play and was definitely encouraged to keep playing.
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2015 saw Daniel move to a different County team, Berkshire. Daniel's reason for this was because it was closer to where he now lived. Daniel also set himself some new goals for this year. The main goals being to achieve a lot more in singles events as well as maintaining a high level in team play. 2015 by all accounts was a great year both in terms of singles events and team events. 2015 also saw Daniel return to competition at the highest level on the UK Pool Tour and also saw his return on the snooker table too.
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As far as the UK Pool Tour was concerned it was a great year, Daniel had a pretty consistent run of results that saw him ranked as high as No.12 in the UK provisionally and finished the year inside the top 20. His best tournament performance was event 2 held in Telford, he reached the quarter finals finally coming unstuck against a great World Champion in Phil Harrison. Daniel's route through to the quarter finals was very tough. First round he beat Carl Clack (former IPA pro) 7-6, round 2 he beat the extremely prolific Steve Petty 7-5, round 3 saw him defeat England International Dave Fernandez 7-3 and Daniel's last 16 opponent was the very talented 2017 World Masters Champion Josh Kane who he triumphed over by the score of 7-5. Daniel started well against Phil going 2-0 up but unfortunately Phil turned it up and went on to beat Daniel 7-2. Daniel was very proud of this performance and the tour as a whole.
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Throughout the year Daniel had managed to win a number of regional events, making good on his intentions to become a much more successful individual competitor. As well as maintaining consistent team performance.
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Some of the titles and high finishes included:
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2015 RatPack World Rules singles league - winner.
2015 RatPack Champions Playoff - Winner.
2015 Maverick's World Championship Qualifier - Winner.
2015 Basildon Open - Winner
2015 RatPack Scotch doubles - Winners (Partner - Nigel Clarke)
2015 Basildon Champions League - Finalist
2015 Inaugural Mavericks 'Felsons Open - Semi finalist.
2015 Jordan's double Eliminator Event - 3rd Place.
2015 UK Pool Tour Event 2 - Quarter Finalist.
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Basildon Open Final. Opponent: Morray Dolan
Basildon Champions League Final.
Opponent: Dan Sparks
RatPack Scotch Doubles Champions.
Partner: Nigel Clarke
Essex Open
Daniel also picked up a number of local league titles with multiple teams that he represented during 2015/16
Including League and Cup titles with:
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O'Donoghues, Waterloo (Spots & Stripes) and The Rat Pack.
Rat Pack Team - East Herts League and Cup Champions
O'Donoghues - League Champions
2015 also saw Daniel given an invite to participate in a Region 7 select super team to play in a friendly warm up match against the Mens England Team. The match was played at Jordans Club in Kent.
Region 7 select super team.
Daniel's Biggest achievement of 2015 and definitely one of the highlights of his career was topping the Region 7 County Rankings. Region 7 consists of 6 Counties: Berkshire, London, Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire with over 200 players. Daniel finished ranked No.1 at the end of the season making him the most consistent player of the 2015 campaign. This also meant that he finished top ranked player in Berkshire which gave him the player of the year award within his County too.
This achievement was a little extra special because it was only Daniel's second season back playing after the 12 year hiatus and in both seasons he finished top ranked player within his County as well as the Region No. 1 in the second season. This also earned Daniel a trial to play for the England Mens Team. Unfortunately he didn't qualify into the England team on that occasion.
Moving into 2016 Daniel had a few off table things to deal with plus he was also playing with the idea of moving away from english pool, he was considering learning and taking up the discipline of American Pool. The reason for this was that Daniel didn't really feel that English Pool offered the opportunities that the American game did.
Even though he had a great last 2 years he really wasn't enjoying the actual english game that much, this was due to multiple factors. So, early 2016 saw Daniel step away from competition considerably, he was still playing but nowhere near as much.
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He did however compete in the National Golden Cue 3 Man Team event alongside top ranked pool players: Steve Petty and Guiseppe D'Imperio representing O'Donoghues Pub. It was a hard fought weekend tournament with many super teams competing for the title. But the team played solid all through and they went on to win the championship beating the Suffolk trio of Karl Sutton, Richard Twomey and Sam Jeffrey in the final. Daniel once again showing his prowess in a national team winning effort.
O'Donoghues winning the Golden Cue 3 Man National Championship 2016.
As fate would have it this would be the last time Daniel played in an English pool tournament. Shortly after winning the Golden Cue title Daniel decided to make a trip to America and take up the American version of the game. A new challenge, a new mountain to climb.
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With no real plan Daniel just booked his plane tickets and set off to the US. This trip lasted 3 months and he visited and played pool in Boston, New York, Chicago, Texas, California and Las Vegas. This was only meant to be a learning experience plus Daniel wanted to start broadening his horizons through travel. Staying in a series of hostels and air bnbs Daniel made his way to different pool clubs around the US. He won many local tournaments on this trip including winning a weekly tournament at the very famous Chris's Billiards in Chicago. This pool hall was used in the filming of the Colour Of Money.
Chris's Billiards (Chicago) - Post tournament win.
Daniel's final stop of the trip was Las Vegas where he spent most of the time. He met a lot of great people, a few of which have become like family to this day. He also played a lot of pool. He competed in the BCA National Championships, He had a good run, managing to cash in the 8 ball singles event. His skills also managed to impress one of the cue companies that was exhibiting at the event, so much so that he was offered a sponsorship deal with OB Cues. OB were particularly interested in helping Daniel to get over to the States so that he could compete full-time on the American circuits.
Promo Shot taken for OB Cues - Taken in GoodTimez Billiards. LV.
Daniel also had his first exposure to Chinese 8 Ball. Joy were over exhibiting at the BCA event and brought a few of the tables with them. Daniel had the pleasure of playing and beating Liu Chang in a challenge match for $50. Liu Chang is one of the top Chinese 8 ball players as well as a former snooker tour professional. Daniel beat him in a nail biter 3-2 for the cash.
Daniel and Liu Chang post match.
Daniel had one more performance to note, He flew over to Texas to play in the Poison Lonestar Tour event as well as the Texas Open tune up scotch doubles tournament. The scotch doubles event saw himself and partner Kim Pierce finish 2nd, in a true double elimination event they had to double dip the other team in the final. They won the first match and then narrowly lost out in the second match hill hill. Daniel's performance in the Lonestar singles event was strong, he finished 6th.
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After an amazing trip Daniel flew back to the UK in September of 2016. He definitely fell in love with the American game and decided that he would look to pursue excellence in this new discipline.
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Between September of 2016 and June of 2017 Daniel continued to play in some of his league pool teams for a short while but gradually knocked all of that on the head, He didn't compete in any pool singles tournaments of note.
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Although Daniel had filtered out most of the English pool he was still competing in his local snooker league (Feltham and District league) representing the Twickenham Royal British Legion. The team won the 2016/2017 league and cup title. Daniel went on to win the singles title and also the award for the highest break of the season. The team were also runners up in the secondary cup event.
Post presentation (Feltham and District Snooker League) TRBL.
June 2017 was a very difficult month for Daniel. His Mum unexpectedly passed away with some difficult circumstances. This took Daniel away from cue sports competition completely for the rest of 2017 and for the first quarter of 2018.
He continued to practice solo snooker during this time, more as a therapeutic device above anything else. With few American pool tournaments in the UK Daniel rarely touched a 9ft pool table upon his return from the US. This halted his ambition to transition into the US style game.
With the lack of American pool action and Daniel's loss of interest in English pool Daniel was questioning whether there was much point in continuing to pursue any type of career as a player. This was when Daniel decided that he would now start working towards becoming a coach.
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With Snooker being Daniel's first love it seemed like the natural thing to gain his coaching qualification with the W.P.B.S.A. Daniel has always been very technically minded when it comes to his pool and snooker and always been fascinated with body mechanics and cue actions etc. Even during his 12 year hiatus, though he didn't play much he still studied an incredible amount of information about the mechanics of the game. Along with the skills he had developed teaching in primary school it just seemed right to combine those skills with his knowledge of the game and try to help others develop as players.
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Daniel spent most of 2017 studying and completing his level 1 & level 2 Qualification with the W.P.B.S.A. Daniel also completed his certification as a SightRight UK Coach. Under the tutelage of master coach Stephen Feeney Daniel learnt the full syllabus of the SightRight method and how to deliver it in a course to others.
Late in 2017 Daniel took another trip to the US. This time to work with a number of pool players teaching them the SightRight method, SightRight is a specialised way of sighting and aligning yourself to the line of aim for playing billiard shots. This was a jam packed 2 week trip, Daniel enjoyed the experience very much and it reinforced his decision in becoming a coach.
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Early 2018 Daniel became the resident coach at Legends Snooker Academy, this was his first residency. At the time local snooker professionals Michael Georgio and Hamid Miah were resident players at the academy so there was a good buzz about the place. Daniel worked with many amateur players during his time at Legends.
Daniel with Michael Georgio shortly after Michael had won his maiden ranking event (2018 Shootout)
To Daniels great delight Legends had recently acquired a Chinese 8 ball table, this allowed Daniel to start getting back into pool on the 9ft table, the table plays different to an American table but is very close, the pockets are much tighter but you can get away with playing 8, 9 and 10 ball on it.
Daniel started to put in a lot of practice playing Chinese 8 ball, his passion and desire to play was once again reigniting, just having the table available made all the difference.
June 2018 saw Daniel enter a qualifying event for a Joy World Masters tournament. The event was held in Southampton, it was Daniels first tournament for some time. But Daniel had prepared well and played great on the day and ended up winning the tournament earning him a place in the upcoming Masters event in China to represent the UK alongside Gareth Potts and Ben Tanner. The prize included entry fee, flights and accommodation.
There was only a few weeks for Daniel to prepare for his trip to China, It came around quick. The tournament was tough school but a much needed experience. Daniel played well in his first match but ended up losing 5-4 with time running out just before Daniel could finish his run out to make it 5-5. Daniel's second match didn't go so well and he was beaten quite comprehensively. It was probably a little too soon for Daniel having very little experience with this discipline but it was good to play both matches on the TV table. Daniel hadn't previously had much experience playing in front of cameras, although it was very nerve wracking and Daniel felt a lot of tension it was great to play in those conditions in a professional arena for the first time.
2 weeks after Daniels return from China he was off on his travels again, back to the US. Vegas was his destination but he also had trips to Texas and California penciled in too. The main purpose for this trip was for SightRight coaching and to compete as much as possible.
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It was a very successful trip in terms of both coaching and playing. Daniel worked with over 20 students during this stint some of which were high profile pool players, Daniel didn't get to compete as much as he wanted but once again had a good run in the BCA National 8 ball event finishing 24th in the Masters division. Daniel also had a great run in the Texas open too finishing 24th in a 128 field full of pro champions. Daniel had a great win over highly rated pro Shane Mcminn 9-3 on route to his good finish. Shane at the time was in contention for the USA Mosconi cup as part of the squad vying for the 5 spots. Daniel also finished 6th in the scotch doubles event with his partner Kim Pierce.
This trip heralded a great breakthrough for Daniel. Due to his good performances and extensive coaching in the the US. Daniels reputation was building nicely. So much so that he was able to gain 3 sponsorship deals. The main one was with one of the leading Cue makers in the world 'Predator Cues'. Daniels deal was not as a member of the pro player team but as a member of the pro instructor team. It was Predators ambition to build a team of pro coaches to help with their development and Daniel fitted the bill nicely. It was a great honour for Daniel to be representing such a great brand especially as he was still very new to American pool both as a player and instructor. Daniel was apart of the Predator team for 18 months but due to the certain directions that Daniel wished to pursue he no longer felt that Predator was the right fit for him going forward. Daniel also signed with Tiger with a tip sponsorship as well as a clothing sponsorship with Jam Up Apparel.
Daniel returned from the US in September 2018. Between September and March 2019 Daniel was pretty quiet. He returned to the US again in March for a few tournaments and some more coaching. Upon his return in April he was able to get a table set up in a club local to him that has a famous reputation. It is the Romford Snooker Club, the original club that Steve Davis played at and home of the legendary Matchroom where Barry Hearn set up the Matchroom company. Daniel's table is actually situated in the matchroom.
Daniel took another trip to the US in July 2019 to compete once again at the BCA World Pool Championships, Daniel didn't do to well in the singles events however he entered the team event with a team from Las Vegas called 'The Goodtimez Shooters' from the very popular Goodtimez pool club. The team managed to finish 3rd. They came close to reaching the final match but lost in a Hill Hill thriller to the eventual champions.
GoodTimez Shooters: 3rd place finish BCA World Championships Las Vegas 2019
Now that Daniel had practice facilities he made a huge decision, he decided that he was going to give American Pool a real go at trying to get somewhere in the professional ranks. Still relatively inexperienced at this discipline Daniel knows how much work he has to do on his game, both the physical side as well as the mental side. He is currently working very hard developing his skills. Daniel also played a few tournaments in the UK for the first time towards the end of 2019, no real decent performances but lots of lessons learned.
The Covid 19 pandemic lockdown definitely came at the wrong time for Daniel as he was starting to make a lot of headway with his game. Daniel will commit to competing on the GB9 tour and the Euro tour once the lockdown situation is over and things have returned to normal. He will also return to America to compete in a few events. Although Daniel has now switched his primary role from coach to player Daniel will still look to do coaching along the way as and when it presents itself but for the next couple of years Daniels main focus will be as a player, as he has a burning desire to fulfil a potential that he regrettably turned his back on for so long, hopefully its not too late. The clock is definitely ticking but Daniel loves a challenge and is a fighter! He will always give 100% and you'll have to scrape him off the table to beat him no matter how good or bad he performs.
March 2019 saw Daniel sign a 5 year full sponsorship deal with Tiger (USA). Daniel already having a tip sponsorship with Tiger has a great respect for the brand and the quality of all their equipment plus a great relationship with Tony the owner of the company, Daniel sat down with Tiger and discussed future directions and plans and came to an agreement with the full backing of Tiger. Moving forward Daniel will be representing the Tiger Pro Team as a player and a coach. Onwards and upwards Daniel is very much relishing his challenges at hand and knocking down the obstacles plus he is looking forward to competing on a full time basis and of course winning a few big titles along the way!
2022 - The return of Tournament play:
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Daniel Had a very good year competing in various events in the UK. He managed to win 3 regional tour events along with a few good finishes to boot.
Leicester 9-ball Tour Event 2 - Champion
Shots Watford 9-Ball Series Event 3 - Champion
Leicester 9-Ball Tour Event 3 Champion
Mcdermott Solihull 9-Ball Series Event 2 - 3rd Place
Mcdermott Solihull 9-Ball Series Grand Final - 5th Place
Leicester 9-Ball Tour Grand Final - 5th Place
GB9 Event 2 - 17th Place