It's the morning after Winston Thomas' performance at the 2017 World Barista Championships in Seoul. The team is gutted as the Live Ranking system has revealed that at the end of Day One, Winston is sitting in 22nd, which means his goal of making it through to the next round won't be realised.
His performance was great. We are proud of him. He went 39 seconds over time to complete his conclusion, but stands by that decision as what he had to say was important so he wanted to finish. We won't know the reasons behind his scores until he hears from the judges in his deliberation time tomorrow. The coffee was tasting beautiful back stage, but in front of all those people and lights it's a whole other story. He is obviously very disappointed, but this was always a step in the next part of his plan, which is to try get back next year. He will use the rest of his time to soak up as much knowledge as he can. We can only look forward now.
We are in a fortunate position as South Africans, because we have two competitors on stage this year. Rory Rosenberg, originally from Durban is representing Norway and he competes today! We will be there watching! Tune in to support!
Team South Africa is making sure that they make the most of the time here. We'll keep you updated.
