World Carp Classic in France crowns winners but organisers are forced to pull sister events

Just days after successfully organising a COVID-19-free World Carp Classic (WCC), the organiser has announced the postponement of its two stablemates which were due to be fished in November.

Ross Honey and his Angling Spirit team received a commendation from the French authorities for the way they ran the record-breaking event on Lac de Madine, France, which attracted 300 anglers from 18 countries. Despite that, Honey has pulled the plug on this year’s World Predator Classic in Hellevoetsluis, the Netherlands and World Street Fishing, in Hamburg, Germany. Honey told Angling International: “I have taken the view that it would be irresponsible to stage them and I would not have felt comfortable putting anyone in danger. The risk would have been too high. You would have had people travelling to the events, unlike the WCC where all the anglers were in their own bubbles throughout the competition.”

He described the staging of the WCC under strict COVID-19 restrictions as ‘challenging’. “We had to write our own rule book before we were granted a dispensation to run the event, and it was made crystal clear to us that if we didn’t comply to the strict rules laid down we would get the red card.” The record-breaking event was won on countback by Dariusz Leszner, Andrzej Krawczyk and Lukasz Cybulski from Poland, who caught the biggest carp of the gruelling five night and six-day event. Those on social media also lapped up the proceedings and produced stats that included:
• 1,603,486 people reached;
• 756,762 comments and post engagements;
1,316,486 video views.
The On Tour Angling live event produced 1,703,212 clicks from interested parties in 103 countries. “The reach has been phenomenal and shows a real thirst for the event,” added Honey.