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Europe 07, World Cups, World Champs, Junior World Champs
News from 11 May 07 until 18 September 07(Click here for more recent news)
Latest entries at top.
The 2007 World Canoe Slalom Championships have officially begun. Demonstration runs for the qualifications course were today. The course looks good - nothing too dramatic, but it never pays to be complacent.
We have just come back from the opening ceremony, which officially opened the event. After the usual athlete parade and official speeches was a fantastic show involving performances such as fire twirling, capoeira (kind of a cross between martial arts and dancing), samba (which involved some skimpy yet extravagant outfits), and a giant conga line. Unfortunately my photos don't do any of it justice, but I did manage to get a photo with a couple of the performers - a samba musician (right of picture) and a capoeira guy (left of picture).
I thought I would also explain 'The House Challenge'. In Australia I live in a house full of paddlers (there are 5 of us; 4 who paddle competitively) and for some time now there has been friendly competitive rivalry at Australian races (usually selection) which we call the 'house challenge' but usually don't end up making a proper bet (i.e. the winner doesn't get anything except the glory). However recently the stakes have been raised. There are 3 of us on the team this year: myself, Christian (C1) and Lachie (half a C2). At the last Penrith race before we came over here, the three of us decided to put a 'victory cake' on the line - the loser had to bake the cake for the winner (I won't mention any names as I don't want to embarrass the loser - but I will mention that I was not the loser or the winner, and the cake is still owing...). The House Challenge has now gone a step further - we have decided that the 2 losers here in Brazil, on our return to Australia, will cook and serve the winner a three course banquet. The race is on!
Today we had our last training session on the whitewater channel before the race. The training period has flown by, and I've had moments of satisfaction and of frustration. It's quite a physical course, but some sections are also very technical, so racing will certainly be challenging - as it should be for a world championship! I know that I'm capable of going fast, and I'm looking forward to racing, but have a couple of days to wait yet - tomorrow is demonstration runs and the opening ceremony; Wednesday is qualifications for the C1s and K1 men; then Thursday is qualifications for the C2s and K1 women; Friday is the teams race; and Saturday and Sunday are semi-finals and finals. For detailed program information you can check out the event website: www.foz2007.org.br
Apologies for the lack of paddling photos, but as everyone in the team has been either paddling, coaching or videoing in every session, there's no-one to take them!
Today we had a day off training so we did some sightseeing. First up was a tour of the Itaipu Dam. As I've said before, it is gigantic, so I couldn't possibly get the whole thing in one photo. We got to go inside and see the control centre - the whole place felt like it was vibrating from all the water flowing through! The dam is on the river which separates Brazil and Paraguay.
Next was the Iguassu Falls, which were absolutely spectacular. We walked up to the falls on the Brazilian side (the Iguassu River separates Brazil and Argentina). There are multiple waterfalls as you walk up, and we were thinking they were pretty cool, but not as great as we'd expected... Then the main falls come into view and they are amazing. There is so much spray in the 'Devil's Throat' that you can't actually see through to the falls!
After training today we went to 'Parque das Aves' (Bird Park), where we saw
some spectacular looking birds. The Flamingoes, Macaws, Toucans and
Hummingbirds were my favourites. There were also snakes (anacondas and boa
constrictors), caimans, turtles, iguanas, butterflies and a horrible looking
tarantula!
I haven't seen much other than the slalom course yet, but I did see a Capybara while I was paddling on the lake above the whitewater channel yesterday. It looked like a cross between a giant guinea pig and a wombat, but with proportionally longer legs than both. I haven't glimpsed the crocodile yet; apparently it's a caiman.
I thought I would also explain the dam / slalom course / fish ladder. The dam is the Itaipu dam, and it's massive. I got a quick look at the dam wall yesterday, which is about 5km long I'm told (I believe it; I couldn't see the far end). It is the biggest hydro-electric plant in the world, supplying most of Paraguay's electricity and about a quarter of Brazil's. The fish ladder enables fish to get from the bottom of the dam to the top and vice versa, and apparently is about 10km long. The bits of it we can see are: a wide, low gradient, shallow looking channel flowing into the lake above the slalom course; the lake above the slalom course; then the fish have a choice of going down/up the slalom course, or a narrow, lower gradient, shallow channel, both of which run from the lake above the slalom course into the warm-up lake at the bottom of the slalom course; from the bottom of the warm up lake there's 100m or so of narrow, vertical walled channel containing pretty nasty stoppers every couple of metres (I wouldn't paddle it); then there's a wider section with more big holes (but paddleable because you could get around them); then the channel narrows, and looks more like a natural creek - it probably continues like this until it reaches the river below the dam somewhere. The worlds website has some good pics and info if my explanation doesn't make sense! www.foz2007.org.br.
Today we had our first taste of the course. It's fairly narrow, with plenty
of good features and some surgey eddies to make things tricky sometimes.
Good fun! Apparently a crocodile was seen in the warm-up area this afternoon
after our session! (just a little one...)
Well we finally arrived in Foz du Iguazu today, after flying from Sydney to Aukland to Buenos Aires where we stayed overnight, then flying to Iguazu (Argentinian side), picking up our hire cars (which was a bit of an epic in itself - I've never seen so much paperwork to hire cars), then driving here. I'm glad we went to all the effort of getting Brazilian visas - there was no-one at the border to even glance at them! I couldn't say how long the trip took in total as I'm too jetlagged to work it out. 13 hours time difference is feeling a lot worse than any jetlag I've ever had.
There was no water at the slalom course today (I haven't seen it yet, but I believe the slalom course comes off a fish ladder below a big dam which I don't know the name of but it's huge apparently) so we paddled on the river (which I also don't know the name of) to loosen up after all the travelling. Just for the sake of it, a few of us paddled across the other side of the river and put our hand on Paraguay!
On Sunday I had a good solid semi-final run, and was sitting in 5th going
into the final (my first big final for the year - about time!).
Unfortunately in the final a time-consuming mistake and two touches pushed
me down to 6th. If I had done another run like my semi, I would have got the
bronze medal... While it is always frustrating to think what might have
been, getting into the final with a good semi run on a challenging course at
the Olympic venue is certainly a step in the right direction, and a
confidence booster! And 6th is my best result at a big international race
after all - I feel as if I'm moving forward!
We had all day yesterday to occupy ourselves before our flight in the evening, so Lachie, Louise, Mark and I took a trip to the Great Wall of China. The spot we went to is certainly very touristy, but still pretty amazing. We took the chairlift up and walked along a section of the wall which was very steep in places. It was a shame about the smog though - it was one of the worse days of smog that we've seen, and it really did obscure the view. From the wall we then took the 'speed chute' back down! To me it seems bizarre to have such a thing alongside such an amazing piece of ancient history - but it was fun all the same!
I have now arrived back home. I enjoyed Beijing a lot and definitely would like to go back!
After a good semi-final run Kate came into the final placed 5th. Her final run was not as fast and she dropped to 6th - this is still her best result at such a big race. She's on her way home now and will write something in the next day or so.
I had a bit of a shaky start to my racing today in the qualifications. I had
a couple of near-disasters in my first run and four touches in my second.
Not the way I want to be paddling. Still, I ended up qualifying in 10th so I
know I can do a lot better than that tomorrow. Louise also qualified easily
in 7th and the C2 had a solid race, qualifying in 4th.
Racing started yesterday with the qualifications for the mens K1 and C1. The course is challenging, and making the competition even tighter, only 15 competitors go through to the semis (this is the format that will be used at the Olympics). Antony made it through in 11th position and races the semi (and hopefully the final) today.
Meanwhile, with the race underway, there has been no whitewater for myself, Louise and the C2 to train on until our race starts tomorrow. We have been spending our time on the flat water, and shopping! On Wednesday we went to the market in Shunyi. Shunyi is the suburb nearest our hotel and the course. This market was very relaxed in comparison to the Pearl market in the city, where we went yesterday before watching the race. The Pearl market is five storeys, and sells everything from pearls and other jewellery, to clothes and bags (fake brands), souvenirs, silk and electronics. Basically it's very difficult to just browse because if you show any interest you get sucked into bargaining for and buying something - the salespeople really don't like it if you say you don't want/need/like their products! The trick is to keep walking, don't look anyone in the eye, and ignore the cries of 'hey lady, you want a bag? you want a wallet? I give you best price', until you catch a glimpse of something you actually do want. Then comes the bargaining process, where apparently you're supposed to offer 10% of their starting price (I am not very good at this), a few offers are made by both seller and buyer and eventually a price is agreed (sometimes helped by just walking away). The seller acts as if they've given you the best deal ever - I'm pretty sure this is not the case for me as I'm not a very hard bargainer! - but by the time money changes hands they are very happy, and continue to try and sell you more stuff. It's quite fun, but a little tiring - especially as sometimes the sellers are actually grabbing onto your arm trying not to let you get away!
Yesterday we had a fantastic afternoon and evening in the city. After a 1 hour taxi ride, we arrived at the Forbidden City, which used to be home to the royal family, their servants and eunuchs only (hence the name - it was forbidden for anyone else to enter). We hired an unofficial guide who knew a lot about the city. It was a bit hard to take it all in, but very awesome to see it anyway. After that we walked up the nearby hill to get a view over the Forbidden City and the rest of Beijing and were maurauded by people selling souvenirs, chopsticks, bags and rickshaw rides. We did practice our bargaining, but I'm still blaming Sue and Max for the money I spent! The hill we walked up is not natural - it was built because according to Feng Shui, a good place has a mountain and a river. Beijing did not have a mountain, so they built a hill. The view was a little smoggy but still worth the walk.
On our return to the bottom of the hill, we got into the rickshaws we had previously negotiated a price with, to take us through the hutongs. Hutongs are narrow alleyways in the old part of the city. Some were very decrepid (and apparently they are going to be knocked down in the near future), others looked quite upmarket and trendy. The rickshaws were a little worrying at times, particularly when we saw their precarious looking brakes, but we had good drivers and it was a lot of fun. They charged us double the price we had negotiated, but never mind, it was a worthwhile experience.
We then caught a taxi to meet the other Aussies at Tiananmen Square and went in search of a restaurant recommended to Lachie by a friend. It was located in another hutong area. Although it was one of the decrepid looking ones, the locals seemed quite happy, playing games on the sidewalk, eating from roadside stalls or just sitting and watching the world go by. At no point did we feel like we were going to be mugged or something! The restaurant was worth the search. In appearance it certainly fit into the decrepid hutong, but the food was awesome and we had quite a feast! In the entranceway are photos of high-profile people who have dined there - including ambassadors of a number of countries (including Australia) Al Gore and the ex French President! All in all it was a fantastic day, and we did eventually make it back to our hotel in taxis.
It may seem like I've forgotten about paddling, but we have been doing plenty of that too! Training is going well. We have one more session tomorrow, then the K1 men and C1s race on Thursday and Friday, and the K1 women and C2s on Saturday and Sunday. Today I visited the 'kiss and cry zone', but alas, there was no-one to kiss and I had no reason to cry either.
Until last night I had not seen anything other than our hotel, the course, and the road in between (5 minutes drive). Buses take us to the course and back to our hotel (or we catch a taxi), and we get all our meals at the hotel - kind of a hybrid of Western and Chinese food. So last night Louise, Sue (Louise's mum; arrived yesterday to judge at the race) and I ventured out of the hotel for our dinner. At the suggestion of the taxi driver (via a volunteer who translated), we went to the "Restaurant in Ecological Garden on water". Here there was a huge menu, with english translations such as "Kishu creatures seeking refuge shrimp", "Tests show that the fish flavour hunan is miscellaneous hotpot" and "Red-roast liaoning senate because rich stomach". Luckily the menu also had pictures, and we managed to choose quite a delicious feast! (we nearly ordered pig ear but the waitress, who didn't actually speak English, managed to warn us off it). Six different dishes, a pot of chamomile tea and a bottle of coke (I thought I was ordering a glass, but got 1.5 litres!) cost us 128 Yuan, which is approximately $21. We seemed to be providing entertainment for the staff - in addition to our waitress, several others seemed to be coming into our little alcove for no apparant reason that we could work out other than to have a look at these weird foreigners! It was a great dinner and we hope to go back.
This afternoon after training we're going into the city to hopefully see the forbidden city, Tiananmen square and the pearl market. It could be an interesting adventure. Apparently it's easy to get a taxi in, but taxi drivers in the city don't like coming all the way back out here (we are an hour out of the city in good traffic, but it can take up to 2 in bad traffic!)
The team arrived in Beijing last night and were met at the airport by seven very friendly volunteers who ensured the speediest exit through customs etc ever. We were only slowed up when we got out to find we were supposed to fit the boats (4 kayaks and a C2) on the bus that was to take us to the hotel. That might not sound so bad, but just take my word for it - it wouldn't work. Luckily our resourceful escorts called up a postal truck to put the boats in and we then made our way to the course to drop them off - only to find the boatshed was locked and no-one was around with a key... A big thanks to our friendly escorts who sent us to the hotel while they waited for the guy with the key!
This morning the sky was surprisingly blue and we could almost make out the mountains in the distance, which is apparently quite rare - we've heard from the athletes who have already been here a few days that the smog is usually so bad that the sun just kind of glows through it. Of course we were all keen to get on the water, even more so when we actually saw the course, which is fantastic! It's continuous whitewater, and a good size - so it's quite intense. The whole venue is well set-up. The complex also contains the sprint/rowing regatta, where the Rowing Junior Worlds started today.
I think this will be a great week! We compete in the "Good Luck" event next weekend.
This race in Ceske Boudeojevice (Czech Republic) was our last for this season in Europe. The organisers set a challenging course with three split gates and a crunch move on the main drop at the bottom section - where many 50s were given out by the beer-drinking judges! Both of us fell victim to this on Saturdays, and Ros was also awarded an unlucky 50 on Sunday. Jacqui cleaned up her act for the second day, and despite almost not racing due to a funny tummy, placed second behind Czech star Stepanka Hilgertova (too far behind!).
The unusual race weekend also included other events such as 'rollo-cross' (head to head rollder blading races) and 'boato-cross' (4 open canadian canoes head to head down the river), which we didn't compete in but were entertaining to watch!
Jacqui has just finished a week-long training camp in Sault Brenaz (France), which has a great training course with everything from moving flat water to a sizable drop. The only thing thats not so great is dodging the plastic boats, rafts, and hydrospeeders that are almost continuously bobbling down - it seems to be a popular holiday spot. Nevertheless, the training was invaluable and I think one of the steepest learning curves I've ever had.
Now I'm back in Prague (seems like my second home) for one night before getting a lift to Ceske Boudeojevice where I'll meet up with Ros and the Junior Team for the Ceske Wave Festival race this weekend.
Well Rosalyn's long awaited competition is over, and she's finished a respectable 14th (though I doubt she'll be happy with that). The results had her at 11th until a penalty was added on late and she slipped down to 14th. Hopefully she'll write a few lines about the race for the website soon! Mum and Dad were at the race to support her which was really great. For results click here.
Meanwhile, Jacqui is training at Sault Brenaz in France with some friends - it is a nice change after so much time in Prague!
...and Kate is training in cold Australia (hehehe).
Well Rosalyn must be too busy socialising, having fun, breaking her boat and maybe even paddling, to write an update for the website! So this is what I (Jacqui) have gathered from the Junior Team website! (all credit to Team Manager Geoff and the athletes who are writing the diary entries - hope you don't mind my stealing!)
After leaving Prague, the team went to Augsburg in Germany for a few days training. On the way one male team member needed to take a pee in the bushes, right near the Czech/German border. The border patrol weren't too pleased with this. Ordering coach and manager out of the driver's seats, a policeman let rip: 'Are you crazy? I don't know how it is in Australia but here we do not stop in ze middle of ze highway and urinate in ze bushes!'
Training in Augsburg apparently consisted of many collisions with the steep cement sides of the channel (don't know who) as well as collisions between boats - making for entertaining video review of the sessions.
The team is now staying near Roudnice and preparing for the upcoming race. Apart from a minor drama with a restaurant that doesn't serve food and instead allows its guests to sit hungry for hours at a time, everything appears to be going smoothly.
I was disappointed with my performances. After
making what felt like a breakthrough into a final last year (2006 World Cup 3, Spain), it is
frustrating that I haven't done it again (yet) this season. Prague and Tacen
were pretty disastrous really, and my 32nd and 23rd were well below what I
believe my standard to be. Augsburg was better - I proved to myself that I
am fast enough to be in the mix, but my 4 seconds of penalties pushed me
from mid-field in the final to 13th. This was almost as painful as my
previous disasters. Needless to say, I need to clean up my racing. This is
by no means an epiphany, it is something I have known for some time and have
been trying to fix. I will be spending the next two months leading up to the
World Champs in Brazil focussing on staying away from those poles, as well
as other aspects of my technique which need some work.
I am now back in Australia and am finding it a little chilly. Ok, I know our
winters are nothing compared to Europe, Canada etc, but I am cold! I will
spend the next three weeks here, and then I'll be going to the Olympic test
event in Beijing in August. This I am very excited about as I have never
been to China, or to anywhere in Asia for that matter except on stopovers on
the way to Europe. Added to the excitement of going to a new place is of
course the fact that I will be racing on THE OLYMPIC COURSE which as yet
no-one has paddled! Aside from the practical purpose of getting a feel for
the water, I think it will be a good race, great atmosphere and an inspiring
experience. It will also be good to get another race in before the Worlds in
September.
The season is not over yet!
Jacqui has just spent three days with Mum and Dad in the Oetz vally in Austria. The trip was a good way to recover from illness (again!) and then get in a variety of activities out of the boat, including walking up some amazing mountains, catching the cable car up and riding down (3000m to 1400m altitude - it was scary!), and walking on a glacier. All this stuff is pretty amazing for us Aussies, given that our highest 'mountain' in Oz is a mere 2,200m. And as you can see from the middle photo, we do get pretty excited about snow, too!
Jacqui is now back in Prague for three nights before heading to France. Mum and Dad have moved onto Roudnice to support Ros in her training and racing at the Junior Pre-World Championships this weekend.
Kate - has flown back to Australia, next stop China! Ros - has gone to Augsburg with the Junior Team.
Jacqui - is leaving Prague tomorrow with Mum and Dad for a holiday in the Austrian mountains.
Kate lay down a solid semi-final run at World Cup 3 to finish 13th - and without her penalties her time would have seen her in the Final. Nevertheless, this is her best world cup result this year and she will be looking to build on the experience at the World Championships in Brazil.
Due to a dodgy internet connection I haven't been able to check the details of the rest of the Aussie Team, so you can check the event website, www.kanu-schwaben-augsburg.de.
As for the other sisters, Roslayn has joined up with the Junior Team at Prague and they are staying here for a few days and making day trips to Roudnice where the Junior Pre-Worlds will be held. Jacqui just finished the biggest training week she's ever done (20 hours) and is looking forward to meeting up with her parents for a light week of sightseeing!
There was some controversy in Kate's qualification race for the final world cup race (Augsburg, Germany) today when she was given a 50s penalty in her first run. Fortunately the penalty was taken off and Kate placed 22nd, easily within the top 40 to go through to the semi-final. She is looking to pick up the pace on Sunday and is aiming for the top ten placings.
You can check results at the event website, www.kanu-schwaben-augsburg.de.
We've just put up a new page where you can use Google Earth to 'fly' to different slalom courses around the world to have a look!
Roudnice is half an hour drive from Prague and will be the site of the 2007 Junior Pre-world Championships, in which Ros will compete in August. So we took a day trip there to get some variety and give Ros some extra experience on the course. Unfortunately our nice early start didn't pay off because some work was being done to the channel and the water was off all morning! So we did a flat water session and then got on the whitewater in the afternoon.
Yesterday Kate qualified 16th on a tight and challenging slalom course that left 15 women with at least one 50s penalty!
Unfortunately Kate didn't hold her position today in the semi-final, finishing 23rd (women's results). Once again Robin Bell was the only Australian to make it into the final, and he finished a respectable 5th, but lost time on his second run. In the finals for all classes there were several athletes who missed gates, which is a result of the unpredictable water that is characteristic of Tacen. The placings for the rest of the team range from 14th through to 61st, and can be seen at the event website.
Prague is really well set up for training and we are making the most of it. We are staying at the boathouse which is right next to the whitewater course, and here we can use the gym and cook our own meals, together with three other Aussies and an Irish.
Tomorrow Kate races qualificaiton for World Cup 2 in Prague, check out the website for the race at www.wc-tacen.si.
Kate is with the Australian Team at Tacen, Slovenia preparing for the second World Cup race this weekend, however training has been interrupted by torrential rain and flooding of the river! Have a look at Baillie and Stott's site for picures. It is expected to subside to a more normal level in the next day or so.
The three sisters met up briefly on Sunday to watch the finals of the mens K1 and C2 (and the Czechs completed their clean sweep of gold medals for the first World Cup), and for dinner. Kate has now left for Tacen, Slovenia for the second World Cup this weekend, while Ros and Jacqui stay on in Prague for training.
The semi-final for the womens K1 at the World Cup in Prague has just been contested, and Kate finished a disappointing 32nd place, ahead of fellow Aussie Louise Natoli in 35th.
"My semi-final run was atrocious. I hit 3 gates, lost my balance entering one of the ups and rolled, then surfed a stopper exiting the same upstream. I finished in 32nd. The course was tough, but I know I can do better than that."
On the upside, being the top placed Aussie girl, this means that Kate will be allowed to compete at the Olympic test event in Beijing later this year.
After a gruelling 11 hour drive from Solkan to northern Germany, I have spent the past week seeing the sights around Schwedt (near Berlin) with my boyfriend and his family. There's no whitewater so I've been training on the flat water and in the gym. Tomorrow we drive to Prague to watch the end of the World Cup and begin a heavy training block.
Kate qualified for the semi-final today in 27th (40 go through). My first run was off the pace, and with 4 seconds of penalties added I was sitting in 31st. My second run was 4 seconds faster, but again I hit 2 gates, incurring another 4 seconds of penalties. This performance did the job today, getting me through to the semi. But I need to clean up my act tomorrow.
Click here for results.
Read about the rest of the Australian Team at www.canoe.org.au
Check out the event website: www.slalomtroja.cz
Kate has done her last training session for the World Cup in Prague, which
commences with qualifications for all classes tomorrow. Training conditions
have been difficult, with strong wind causing the gate poles to swing a lot.
It's the same for everyone though, and better that we get used to it than
get caught out on race day. I am looking forward to racing.
Kate arrived in Prague
yesterday and will spend the rest of the week preparing for the first world
cup of the season. This is an important race for Kate. Not only is it a
world cup, but her result here will determine whether she goes to the test
event in Beijing, to be held in August this year. If she is the top placed
Australian K1W, she will go to the Beijing race, together with Louise
Natoli, the top ranked boat from selection. Qualifications for all classes
are on Friday, and the K1W and C1 semis and finals are on Saturday.
NB: Jacqui is now in Potsdam, Germany, visiting her boyfriend for a break, and Ros is training in Augsburg.
Thursday and Friday's race proved to be as fun as expected, with tight, technical courses - and it was great paddling at night under the spotlights for the final. Athletes were awarded points based on their position in each race, and then the points from each race were added together to give the final score and determine the overall placings.
On Thursday's race the top three women were well ahead of the rest of the field, with Jacqui in 4th and off the pace, and Rosalyn in 6th. After the 1st run on Friday Jacqui was again in 4th, but closer in time, and the top three positions looked to be set. Jacqui then put down the fastest girls time for her second run, but with two 1s penalties, and moved into 2nd place. This put her in 3rd place overall, so she scored some prize money, 200 euro, yay! (except that once they take the 25% tax its 150 euro). Slovenia's Nina Mozetic took out 1st place overall, and local Ursa Kragelj second. Rosalyn came 7th, not bad for a field consisting mostly of seniors. Robin Bell was first overall for the C1 class, and most of the other Australians at the event were in the finals. See the results for Thursday here and for Friday here.
Tomorrow the HIT Slalom Challenge begins at Solkan, Slovenia. The competition will have an unusual race format, with a short course, only one pole on each gate, and 1-second penalties for touches (this sounds like we have it easy - but a missed gate means disqualification!). To top it all off, the Final will be held in the dark, under spotlights! Sounds exciting, and there is prize money for the first three places in each class - 1000euro for 1st, 500euro for 2nd and 200euro for 3rd.
Jacqui is taking longer to recover from Sunday night's sickness than expected, and hasn't been able to train, so she's saving her energy to give it everything in the race tomorrow and Friday.
Kate and Ros are nearing the end of their time in Bourg. Kate's coach Myriam has arrived so Kate has been working with her. Ros has unfortunately come down with a bad cold so is taking it relatively easy, although she can't actually stay away from the water because it is so much fun! Tomorrow Ros will travel with fellow Australian Will Forsythe to Solkan for the Hit Slalom Challenge. Kate will head to Augsburg on Wednesday en route to Prague for the first World Cup.
I had a forced day of rest today after a violent bout of food poisoning, or some kind of tummy bug, last night. It cleared up at about 6am, but I've been weak and tired all day. Hopefully I get some strength back after a good night's sleep. Pity - Mexican food used to be one of my favourites!
No paddling shots, but my Slovenian family took me into Ljubljana last night to look around, here are some pretty pictures.
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Kate and Ros arrived in Bourg St. Maurice, France, on Monday. The course here is fantastic - the top section has exciting whitewater and the bottom is excellent for technical training. Unfortunately Ros has broken her good paddle. She finished off the session C1 style (not a bad effort on Bourg - check out the picture), and now she has to get used to using her spare.
Tuesday was Ros' 18th Birthday. To celebrate, all the aussie paddlers here threw her a pancake party. She also received a lot of attention from the French boys staying next door! In the evening the French took us out on the town, and on Wednesday Ros went paragliding - her present from the family. She said it was "the best birthday present ever" and that was before she jumped off the side of a mountain at 1800m, rising to 2700m and landing 40 minutes later!
The Lawrence clan has split again, with Ros and Kate training at Bourg St Maurice in France (and there hasn't been any word from them since we all left Merano), and Jacqui at Tacen in Slovenia. With help from a Slovenian coach, Jacqui has fluked in on an excellent training setup, staying with a family just 50m from the whitewater channel! This allows for less travel, and more time sleeping, eating and otherwise recovering in between sessions. Sleep was definitely needed today, as before the morning whitewater session Jacqui decided to accompany a new friend for a walk up the hill... the friend turned up in full hiking gear including those funny ski-pole style sticks...lets just say it was no easy stroll, and was more like the equivalent of a 60min run (and I hate running!). View from top in picture. Training is otherwise going very well!
Today we just didn't match the strength of the Germans, who took out 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the junior class, with an unhappy Ros coming in 4th (she said "I paddled like **** and I'm very angry"!). Jacqui didn't really find her rhythm in her first run and was coming 8th, with Kate 0.01 seconds behind her! (the commentator was quite excited about that!). Jacqui then improved her time by 4 seconds in her second run, but incurred a 2 second penalty, and finished 7th behind several Germans, a Slovakian and an Italian. Kate lost some form on her second run and ended 10th. It was just a two-run race, meaning there are no semis and finals. The mens K1 race tomorrow.
We discovered too late that it was actually possible to enter in Womens C1 and C2 for this race! Unfortunately, no one did.
After being scattered all over Europe, the three of us are together again in Merano, Italy. Jacqui and Ros arrived on Wednesday, travelling from Bratislava and Tacen respectively, and Kate arrived today from Augsburg. Our parents are also in Italy at the moment - taking in the sights of Rome! (It's Dad's first trip outside of Australia). Strange that we are all in the same country in Europe but not together.
The slalom course is on a natural river which unfortunately does not have a lot of water running down it at the moment. We have heard that it is an exciting course when the water is high, but have never seen it! So the race tomorrow is likely to involve just as much rock-dodging as pole-dodging! And we have had plenty of practice at that, as there has only been about 7 gates on the course to use for training. Nonetheless, the town is beautiful, set in a valley with mountain views all around.
After spending the week with the Kiwis (thanks guys), Ros had a terrible race on Saturday and a solid performance on Sunday, earning her third place overall in the junior class (which she wasn't very happy with!). The top 10 competitors in the senior division got to compete in the 'Great Final' - they competed on a shorter course (14 gates) with the water level turned up extra high. It was very exciting to watch, as many competitors made major mistakes during their runs!
Ros will hitch a ride with the Canadians to Merano, Italy on Wednesday.
Kate and Ros have been training in Tacen, Slovenia since Monday. Ros will race there on the weekend but Kate has driven to Augsburg today for a training block there. Kate will return to Tacen for the second World Cup race in July.
Jacqui has one week to go of her training block at Bratislava, and is enjoying her time on the whitewater training with the local Slovaks.
After a stormy night, race day began with the news that the river had risen by 10 cumecs. This meant the course had to be changed because some of the eddies were no longer eddies. First runs proceeded with no organisational dramas. Kate's run, however, left a lot to be desired. As the rain continued throughout the day, the river continued to rise. Despite low poles, Kate's second run was much better (the fastest womens run time) but it was not enough to pull her up from 2nd place (behind Nina Mozetic of Slovenia). Ros didn't paddle as well as she would have liked, but is happy with 7th place amongst the seniors - her best international result so far. Before the mens K1 the poles were raised, but halfway through they had to be raised again. This meant the 40 or so competitors who had already raced had to do re-runs. This actually did them no good at all because the river was now a raging torrent and the course very hard!
Ros and Kate arrived in Bovec, Slovenia on Monday. The river is beautiful,
crystal clear glacial melt, we are surrounded by mountains and the weather
is great! As the river is quite cold it makes a perfect natural plunge pool
for post training hot-cold recovery, although the "hot" is just sunshine as
there is no hot spa by the river! We will race on Sunday.
Ok this is where it gets a bit confusing, because Kate and Ros have gone to Bovec, Slovennia, while Jacqui is staying on in Bratislava for two weeks! So we'll continue writing news, but you'll have to keep track of which sisters are where! Jacqui is staying on her own in Cunovo (the closest village to the slalom course), and getting around by pushbike. She's doing a high volume of whitewater training (although not that high volume compared to Slovakian standards) over the next two weeks, before lightening the training load a little in the week leading up to the race in Merano, Italy.
Kate came 4th today after a solid semi-final run and a not so solid final run (including a speedy capsize). The course was a lot tighter than yesterday and proved the undoing of many an athlete. The crowd provided a great atmosphere - its unbelievable how many locals came out to watch the race! As she is in the top 6, Kate picks up some cool prizes, but not as cool as the Nissan Micra that Slovak C1 paddler Michael Martikan won. In fact the Slovaks got the gold in every class, but the car goes to Martikan because he had the biggest margin on 2nd place. World Champion Jana Dukatova won the Ladies K1, ahead of Olympic Champion Elena Kaliska.
Jacqui missed gate 2 in her semi run (how frustrating! - but at least she wasn't the only one to do it), and didn't really manage to refocus, placing 24th - a disappointment after qualifying 5th. Rosalyn placed just after her at 25th.
Today the Canoe Slalom World Series Slovak Open began with the qualification race. The course was not too hard, although who would have thought that two downstream gates about 20m apart at the bottom of the course would cause so much trouble! Kate had a solid first run and average second run, placing 6th. Jacqui had a slow first run and faster second run, placing 5th, and Rosalyn was happy with her race apart from the bottom drop, where she had a few capsizes! - and placed 26th. We expect the course to be much trickier tomorrow for the semi and final.
The whitewater course here is proving fun as usual - the water level has been cranked up for this week to make the race this weekend more exciting! And it certainly has been entertaining trying to master the bottom drop, and watching others attempt the same!
Jacqui got her new boat today (Galasport Toreto) - thanks to Sam Lyons for making the 10 hour round trip to the factory to pick it up with his. There has somehow been a mix up with designs, and Jacqui has the boat she ordered except with the design ordered by aussie junior Madeline Toms - and presumably Maddy will get her boat with Jacqui's design. Very sorry about that Maddy - I really like your design but not so sure you will like mine!
Our accommodation is somewhat unusual - a kind of floating hotel! Its new, and just 150m from the whitewater course, so very convenient.
Jacqui arrived at Vienna airport yesterday morning, and as the last of a multitude of small things going wrong, her boat and paddles didn't arrive (left in Bangkok)! She stayed with the Kremslehner family for the night, took in the sights of Vienna before being driven to pick up her boat that came in on the flight this morning, and then getting a lift to Bratislava - thanks to Wolfgang, Heidi, Chris and Constantine for their wonderful hospitality and lift to Bratislava!
Ros and Kate had a stopover in Bangkok and then flew in to Munich, and are staying a couple of nights with Tommy and Fritzy Schmidt in Augsburg to recover from jet lag before driving to Bratislava on Monday.
Well the three of us set off to Europe today - the beginning of a 3-month stint for Jacqui and Ros, and 2 months for Kate. Ros will spend 2 months training and competing before joining the Junior Team. Kate travels with Ros for a few weeks before the beginning of this year's World Cup events. Jacqui will be with Kate and Ros for the first week to race in the Slovak Open, and then will stay on in Bratislava for a few weeks before meeting up with her sisters again for the race in Merano. Our separate itineraries are too complicated to explain here but click on the Profiles section for our plans!