Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

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call me the english cricket team the way i'm taking a moral victory

an unfortunate highlight from a lackluster comp. if i won any event this ausnats i would've been an australian champion five nationals in a row, something which only Feliks has ever done before.

i knew i was extremely likely to come away with at least one win, but i think implicitly the idea of letting slip an achievement that spans multiple majors and years of my career was simply too overwhelming for me in my current state of passion and practice.

i grew complacent from day 1, when my best multi result in nearly 3 years still wasn't enough to outrun an 8 point PR from Felix Williams. despite being extremely happy with the result, from there the wheels fell off. stream on day 1 left me mentally frazzled, and my attitude coming into my main event on day 2 was not one from a position of power or confidence. in the end my mind got in the way of itself in a manner i've not yet had to contend with and i squandered any chance i had of a 5bld win before it had even begun.

that led us to this round. i knew i was still the favourite coming into 4bld, and after a significant improvement in mood i felt far more prepared to take on the challenge. as the round started, i still felt i had it in me to produce something great.

first solve i DNFed a 1:29 by 2 centres. in my head it still would've been good enough to win (and indeed it was), plus it was a good solve qualitatively, so i saw no reason to change tactics for the next solve. that next solve was this one.

it's sobering in some way to think that this competition was destined not to be a good one for me. my cubing practice has been almost naught recently, and focus has become less about improvement and more about maintenance. i still have so much love for the sport, but that love for competing at a high level is not as great.

while i acknowledge it sounds self-important to believe as such, i consider my position as a role model in the community to be far more important than whatever times i can achieve on any given day. for that reason i am more than happy this year to relinquish my titles to Felix and Amy as a reminder that what i've achieved in the past is a stepping stone for people to look up to and eventually to build upon, and seeing it coming to fruition is simply a mark of passing time.

i know my time at the top is running out, but i'm glad to have even been in that position in the first place, and to be held in high regard is something i'll never understand but am nonetheless truly grateful for.

thanks for believing in me, now it's time for me to believe in you.

With love,
TRIPOD.