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== SMK Championship of France 2007 ==
 
== SMK Championship of France 2007 ==
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Two months later in Paris, Florent signed off on another momentous year with a winning performance at the French Championship. Because of his success in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway Norway], Florent entered the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/CDF2007.php CDF of 2007] as one of the two clear favourites to win. It was expected that the overall win would either go to [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre L'Hoëst] or him. The rivalry between the two became clear from the very start as they faced eachother in the final of the first event, which was the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/TT2007.php TT tournament]. This final took place on one of his favourite tracks, [[KB1]], but the pressure got to him as he hit some weed and ended in 2nd place with [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] grabbing the first gold medal of that [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] with a clean race. Florent made his candidacy for the overall win clear early on though. In the Match Race tournament he faced [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] in the final again, but this time the gold medal went to Florent after a convincing 11-7 in his favour. The Battle Mode tournament saw another [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] versus Florent final. The level on display was extremely high and to this day Florent claims that the level he reached in this match was the highest he has ever reached as an [[SMK]] player. Despite Pierre’s strong resistance and fine form, Florent proved to be an unstoppable force from now on, winning the tournament in style with a 11-4 victory. Florent was comfortably in the lead in the overall rankings now, with his best mode (GP) still ahead. Only a miracle could stop him from winning his first CDF from that point onwards. When Florent reached the final of the GP tournament ([http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] was knocked out at this point), he was already certain of the overall victory. But as a true champion he gave it his best once more to also claim the title in the GP final in a thrilling early morning match against [[Nicolas Haufmann]] (also known as El Nico on the boards). Nicolas could not prevent Florent from reaching a landslide 5-1 victory, meaning that Florent succesfully crowned his [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] with another gold medal. Rarely had the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] seen such a display of dominance from one karter, winning all the multiplayer modes with big scorelines plus reaching the final of the TT event as well.
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Two months later in Paris, Florent signed off on another momentous year with a winning performance at the French Championship. Because of his success in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway Norway], Florent entered the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/CDF2007.php CDF of 2007] as one of the two clear favourites to win. It was expected that the overall win would either go to [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre L'Hoëst] or him. The rivalry between the two became clear from the very start as they faced eachother in the final of the first event, which was the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/TT2007.php TT tournament]. This final took place on one of his favourite tracks, [[KB1]], but the pressure got to him as he hit some weed and ended in 2nd place with [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] grabbing the first gold medal of that [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] with a clean race. Florent made his candidacy for the overall win clear early on though. In the Match Race tournament he faced [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] in the final again, but this time the gold medal went to Florent after a convincing 11-7 in his favour. The Battle Mode tournament saw another [http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] versus Florent final. The level on display was extremely high and Florent claimed afterwards that the level he reached in this match was the highest he had ever reached as an [[SMK]] player thus far. Despite Pierre’s strong resistance and fine form, Florent proved to be an unstoppable force from now on, winning the tournament in style with a 11-4 victory. Florent was comfortably in the lead in the overall rankings now, with his best mode (GP) still ahead. Only a miracle could stop him from winning his first CDF from that point onwards. When Florent reached the final of the GP tournament ([http://speedrunwiki.com/Pierre_L%27Hoest Pierre] was knocked out at this point), he was already certain of the overall victory. But as a true champion he gave it his best once more to also claim the title in the GP final in a thrilling early morning match against [[Nicolas Haufmann]] (also known as El Nico on the boards). Nicolas could not prevent Florent from reaching a landslide 5-1 victory, meaning that Florent succesfully crowned his [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] with another gold medal. Rarely had the [http://www.championnat-smk.org/ CDF] seen such a display of dominance from one karter, winning all the multiplayer modes with big scorelines plus reaching the final of the TT event as well.
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To make up for lost ground versus [[Sami]] in the overall ranking, Florent knew he had to do something special in the BM tournament. For the 6th year running he made the final four, though he did not obtain a medal after successive losses versus [[Geoffrey Label]] (semi final) and [[Drew Blumfield]] (little final). This was more than an acceptable performance for Florent, however it was not enough, as he did find himself struggling to maintain a top 5 spot in the overall rankings. Florent set the record straight on GP day with top notch driving that he himself described as the pinnacle of his SMK career. Among the performances was a sub 1'20 World Record on [[BC2]] 5-lap with 2 feathers, driven during the group stages.  
 
To make up for lost ground versus [[Sami]] in the overall ranking, Florent knew he had to do something special in the BM tournament. For the 6th year running he made the final four, though he did not obtain a medal after successive losses versus [[Geoffrey Label]] (semi final) and [[Drew Blumfield]] (little final). This was more than an acceptable performance for Florent, however it was not enough, as he did find himself struggling to maintain a top 5 spot in the overall rankings. Florent set the record straight on GP day with top notch driving that he himself described as the pinnacle of his SMK career. Among the performances was a sub 1'20 World Record on [[BC2]] 5-lap with 2 feathers, driven during the group stages.  
Notably, he did narrowly escape elimination in the 1/8 finals, where he faced tough opposition of [[Ben Allen]]. After Ben surprisingly won the first cup, they had to play mushroom cup. Again Ben started the cup very well and gained an early lead. Ben moved himself into the position to pull off one of the biggest upsets in CDM history, as winning one of the final two tracks, BC1 or MC2, would have given him the victory. Therefore, Florent was on the verge of losing his last chance to gain a gold medal and a top-3 overall ranking at the (official PAL) CDM of 2012. Moreover, Florent's GP gold medal streak was on the line. Knowing this, Florent pulled off the win on both BC1 and MC2 and went on to progress to the quarter final, but not without acknowledging that out of all the players he had faced during his 7 year GP winning streak, [[Ben Allen]] came the closest to stopping him. After this, Florent was unstoppable as he convincingly beat both [[Sami]] and [[Harold Christensen]] without losing a single cup, in the semi final and final respectively. This meant he had won the gold medal for the 7th year running. This was enough for Florent to jump all the way to the 2nd position in the overall rankings, but not enough to prevent [[Sami]] from gaining his first ever SMK World Champion title.
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Notably, he did narrowly escape elimination in the 1/8 finals, where he faced tough opposition of [[Ben Allen]]. After Ben surprisingly won the first cup, they had to play mushroom cup. Again Ben started the cup very well and gained an early lead. Ben moved himself into the position to pull off one of the biggest upsets in CDM history, as winning one of the final two tracks, BC1 or MC2, would have given him the victory. Therefore, Florent was on the verge of losing his last chance to gain a gold medal and a top-3 overall ranking at the (official PAL) CDM of 2012. Moreover, Florent's GP gold medal streak was on the line. Knowing this, Florent pulled off the win on both BC1 and MC2 and went on to progress to the quarter final, but not without acknowledging that out of all the players he had faced during his 7 year GP winning streak, [[Ben Allen]] had come the closest to stopping him. After this, Florent was unstoppable as he convincingly beat [[Julien Holmière]], [[Sami]] and [[Harold Christensen]] without losing a single cup, in the quarter final, semi final and final respectively. This meant he had won the gold medal for the 7th year running. This was enough for Florent to jump all the way to the 2nd position in the overall rankings, but not enough to prevent [[Sami]] from gaining his first ever SMK World Champion title.
    
In the aftermath of the PAL event, Florent also participated in the [[NTSC]] SMK multiplayer tournament, reaching the final of MR, but losing it to [[Sami]]. Florent's lack of experience in [[NTSC]] multiplayer showed, as he was eliminated in the BM quarter final by [[Conor Wood]] and the GP semi final by [[Harold Christensen]]. Still his performances merited a third place in the NTSC multiplayer overall rankings, with [[Julien Holmiere]] and [[Sami Cetin]] grabbing second and first place respectively.
 
In the aftermath of the PAL event, Florent also participated in the [[NTSC]] SMK multiplayer tournament, reaching the final of MR, but losing it to [[Sami]]. Florent's lack of experience in [[NTSC]] multiplayer showed, as he was eliminated in the BM quarter final by [[Conor Wood]] and the GP semi final by [[Harold Christensen]]. Still his performances merited a third place in the NTSC multiplayer overall rankings, with [[Julien Holmiere]] and [[Sami Cetin]] grabbing second and first place respectively.
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