Tacen

Final result for me, 34th... and 17th nation, so not enough to satisfy the NZOC requirement of top 16 nations, so its all over.
My runs were not bad, my competition just paddled faster, and went clean!! First run i was online and kept the boat moving but got a little off line in two gates and picked up touches, and then on 2nd run i was paddling well but got off line in one section and picked up 3 touches in a row and that was it, all over for me!!
So it is pretty gutting to be so close...but yet not do enough, training was going well all week and i was feeling strong and ready to race, but it was always going to be hard to get into the top 16 nations, especially when competing against much more funded teams and athletes.
So finally thanks to everyone who has supported me so far and maybe the NZOC can be convinced that top 17 nations is maybe enough...
Other kiwis C2 boys, 24th/25, Louise, 45th/45, Luuka 35th/45 (but luuka is through to semis and can hopefully lift her performance tomorrow and secure that spot for NZ in the K1 womens)

prague

so the racing for me is over here, i had a very average run on the course and ended up in 38th place. so not a good result for me after placing 30th yesterday, i was hopeing to improve but was unable too. Now i will travel to tacen where i have one last chanceto get into the top 16 nations!!
luuka, the other kiwi going for olympic selection had a bad run too, ending up in 39th, so she too will travel to tacen and hope to secure that spot next weekend.
this afternoon is the finals, tony is winning the c1s and mandy planert is winning the k1W

prague

well quals has just finished, i made it comfortably through to tomorrow, 30th place, and in 17th nation place. Need to lift it a little tomorrow to ensure i make it into the top 16 nation place.
Both the kiwi girls made it through, luuka 38th and louise 39th, so they have a chance tomorrow to lift themselves up a few places. the C2 is still on at the mo.
demos are tonight for semifinals course so will be exciting to see what they set!!

prague world cup

The course has just been set here for the qualification runs starting at 9 am tomorrow for me, 10ish for the girls and in the arvo for the c2 boys. the course looks good, not to bad, a few tricky bits but overall pretty standard.
live results can be found on results.cz and live tv coverage of the event, including qual runs, supposably, can be found on the link from slalomtroja.cz
So tomorrow i have to make it into the top 40 boats, and then i get to race off on saturday for a final placing!!

Back in prague

The "Devils" foot + pics of the course at augsburg




Yesterday we left augsburg and made the journey back to prague. we arrived at about 7 and managed to fit in a session back on the course before it got dark! We also met up with the rest of the team last night, the c2 arrived and our other k1 women. the c2 came from NZ and our K1 women flew in from Nottingham, London.
It is starting to seem more like a world cup here each day, today there are session times and we are training with the aussies, belgiums and bulgerians.
This morning the guys did a session with kidda, progressives and are looking pretty sharp, obviously been doing lots of training!!
Well there are 3 more days of training, and then the course closes for the racing on friday, should be a good race, am really looking forward to it. here are some pics from our week in augsburg

Prague World cup week

Hi everyone, well its getting close to the first of the two Olympic selection races where I have to place in the top 16 nations to secure my spot to race for New Zealand at the Olympics in August. The first race is on 20th June in Prague, Czech Republic and the second on 27th June in Tacen, Slovenia.
Training has been going well and I am feeling fresh and ready to race my best in Prague and secure the spot there, so that I can travel to China and use the last training camp before the games to prepare and get myself in the best shape before the games begin on 11th August.
I travelled to Europe in early June and have spent time training at Liptovsky and Bratslava in Slovakia, Prague, Veltrusy, Roudnice in the Czech Republic, and Augsburg in Germany. So I feel I have done a lot of training and really know my boat and how it feels on the water and how to make it go fast!!
I have the qualification races on Friday the 20th June, then the semifinal and final runs on June 21st. So I will update you with how the final results pan out, and whether I travel straight to Beijing, or via Tacen to Beijing.
Thanks to everyone for their support and especially First Mortgage Trust (Tga), Skeggs Foundation (Dun) and the New Zealand Dental Association.

Augsburg

We are now in augsburg, hanging out and taking it easy for the week leading into the first world cup week in Prague. The city here is really nice and the weather has been pretty good, 29 degrees on tuesday, rained yesterday and its looking good today. We have done one session on the course, been swiming and eaten schwaben center kebaps. We will head back to prague on sunday to meet up with the rest of the kiwis and the final preparation into the world cup.
We are staying at kathryns house which is really nice, and her parents are looking after us, we made them an awesome kiwi style pavlova last night which turned out pretty well!! especially for a first time effort.
Cody the Skoda is still going strong and getting us around (touch wood) and the stereo is still pumping which is the main thing!

Update

Well not to much has happened here in Prague since the last post. The training is going well, really feeling like i know the course here, and by the end of the week should have done basically all the moves on this course!!
The canadians are here, and the Austrians and Italians have just arrived.
Over the weekend we had a race in roudnice, a small town about 40 mins from prague. It is a really nice course, and is the site for the junior worlds later in the year, on july 27th i think... So racing there went pretty well, did some good things and had a clean run, which was a positive!! as touches will be killer out here at the world cup in prague.
So we train here in prague until the end of the week and then head to Augsburg to chill out for a few days before coming back to prague for the world cup and to meet up with the rest of the team.
Well i am hoping that the race here in prague goes well, because if i need to go to Tacen to secure the spot then i will miss the last training camp in Beijing and have to go to the Olympics without having ever paddled on the course. Lots of the the other paddlers went to beijing on friday and it sounds like its a pretty big and physical course. Looking super forward to being able to paddle there!!!

Veltrusy

So the race in veltrusy over the weekend has happened and the racing was pretty exciting. All the classes were won by the czechs.
Racing was quite hard on a course which i had never seen let alone paddled, but it went ok, i finished in 5th so that was ok.
Today we were supposed to go to tranvka, a course in czech, a big water course which only flows a few times each year, but we have struck some troubles with the car as the lights were left on, and now we cant get it going...maybe we will get there next tuesday?? So instead we will spend the day on the troja course here in prague.
We have one more race this coming weekend before the Prague world cup, it is in Roudinice, a small town about 60 minutes from Prague, so we will try and get a day of paddling there before the races. Also this weekend there is a money race in Solkan, Slovenia, 8000 euro prize money!!

Training

Training is going pretty good in prague, just lots of whitewater sessions, basically two every day so feeling pretty tired! We are heading to veltrusy for a race tomorrow for the weekend, its only about 30 mins from prague, so thats pretty sweet, not to much driving.
Next tuesday i am looking at going to Tranvaka with the czechs which should be fun, its supposed to be a course of similiar size to beijing!! so should be super fun after prague!!
Well this weekend will be good for a well deserved break from the course here at prague, next week i have one more hard block and a race in Roudinice and then i have a break in Augsburg for a few days and then it is the build up for the World cup here in Prague.
The rest of the NZL team arrive next sunday week, the 15th June

Prague

Well we have had a slight change of plan and have now ended up in Prague, which probably isnt too bad considering this is the course where i have my final Olympic selection race.
We travelled from Liptovsky to Bratslava to do a weeks training there, but we were hit with a cost of 15 euro a session, and when we were planning on two sessions a day this adds up fast!!
So we jumped back into the Skoda and drove to Prague where we arrived last night and are now staying at the boat house. This is really good for training as it is less than 50 metres from the start of the course, and only a train ride into the center of Prague town.
I will go to a small race this weekend in Susucie with the czechs and then next weekend in Roudinice. During the week i will stay in Prague training on the course.
Training here already feels pretty good, and the water feels alot smaller than Liptovsky and Brataslava. I will be here for just over two weeks and then head to augsburg, Germany

Finals

Well there was some very exciting racing here today with the Slovak ladies Olympic K1 spot being contested. Elena Kaliska kept her composure to secure herself a ticket to the games in Beijing! Well done Elena!!!
Unfortunantly I had a shocker in the 2nd half of the course!! After having a really tight and sharp top section I broke out above gate 10 and then had to resurc for it and it all went down hill from there. I finished in 29th place, quite disappointed, i really thought i was going to put down a much better run!!
The other racing was really spectactular with Martician taking out the C1 title again in style, with more than 7 seconds to spare on 2nd, Slafkovsky, 3rd was Mataj Benus
K1 Womens, 1st Elena Kaliska, 2nd Jana Dukatova, 3rd Dana Benus
K1 Men, 1st Fabien Lefevre, 2nd Ben Boukpeti, 3rd Jan Sarbidor

We now stay the night here in Liptovsky and head to Brataslava tomorrow for one week of training there.

Qualification

The quals is over and once again the slovaks dominated all fields except the K1 mens. Fabien took it out again in style.
I qualified in 23rd after having some considerable trouble in the drop!! taking two rolls and getting a nice surf in the hole. The cut was top 40 so i was comfortably through. The rest of my run was sweet so it was pretty frustrating not to be able to complete a good run!! But the main thing i did enough to make it through to the semifinals where it all counts!

The other kiwi, Louise, missed the womans cut after having some trouble in the drop and incurring a 50 second penality.

Results were:

C1 1st Martician, 2nd Slafkovsky, 3rd Estanguet
K1W 1st Dukatova, 2nd Pfeifer, 3rd Benusova
C2 1st Kucera/ Batik, 2nd Hochschorners, 3rd Kuban/ Olejnik
K1M 1st Lefevre, 2nd Sajbidor, 3rd Diez-Canedo

60th international Tatra slalom

Day one racing is over and rather expected was the domination by the Slovaks on their home course. The C1 was convincingly won by Martician with around 4 seconds to spare, 2nd went to Slafkovsky, and third to Mincik. I finished up 21st out of a field of 61, after having some problems in my runs with the tricky move which was set at the bottom of the course, tomorrow should be better!! Still i am happy with the result as it was the first race of my European season and there were lots of good things which i did on the course.
In the K1 womens Elena Kaliska took the honours, and in the C2 Skanter/ Skanter showed the Hochschorners how to do it by just over 1 second.
The only class won by a non slovak was the K1 men, Fabien Lefevre, France took it out, Jan Sarbidor 2nd and Beniot Peschier 3rd
Well the race tomorrow is a totally new race and new course is to be set tonight so we will head down and take a look before racing on it tomorrow morning.

Tatra Slalom

So the course has been closed and the gates have been set in what is the 60th Anniversary of the Tatra Slalom race. There are around 200 athletes here from 12 different countries around europe plus Canada and New Zealand.
The fields here are strong with past or present world champions in each of the four classes so it will make for some exciting racing over the weekend. We have a 2 run race tomorrow and then another race over the weekend with qualification on Saturday and then semis and finals on Sunday.
This race will round off an intense 2 week training block here on the course, feeling totally exhausted but amped to race!!

Update

Well a week of training is now over, we have spent it in Liptovsky doing two sessions a day on the course and am feeling pretty tired now. There is one more day of free training on the course and then it is closed for the weekend for the racing.
This weekend is the 60th anniversary of the Tatra slalom races and a small race is being held here... but there are some big names showing! It should be an exciting race.
After this week we will head to Bratslava for some more training and might even get a days training on a course in Tranavka, in the Czech republic which will be fun!! Its supposed to be a similiar size to the Olympic course in China, so looking forward to that.

Liptovsky Michulas

Liptovsky Michulas

More pics

Cooking in our accommodation in LM












More Caves













Liptosky Town center













More Caves















Our mint accommodation

Pics

Ice Caves in Liptosky










































Our sweet new ride.

Europe

I have just arrived in Liptosky Michalus after an epic trip to get here. I left NZ on Monday morning and have finally arrived here now after 30 hours of flying and 20 hours of driving across basically the whole of Czech and half of Slovakia.
i met up with Louise in Vienna where we got a lift with Danka (thanks) to Bratslava to pick up our sweet ride. A 1990 Skoda Rapid, Sports model!!, it goes like a treat, and we have made a journey from Bratslava to Susice (the galasport factory) and back to Liptosky where we are now.
Training on the course is good, the water s technical and fast, but super cold as we are right in the mountains and the river is fed by snow melt!!
I dont have any pictures at the moment, but will post some up asap.

Back Home

After two weeks of full on training on the course in Penrith i have headed back to Dunedin for a week, to rest, recover and catch up on all the work i missed in two weeks. 3 months is going to be fun catching up on!!
Training went really well with Rob coaching me heaps and setting me alot to work on in the next few months. And with Ash doing the most training she has in years and joining in on most loop sessions!! So thanks Rob for the coaching and Ash for the company and place to stay.
Now i have under a week to sort myself out for heading over to europe to begin the build up for the world cups in late June.
I fly into Wien and then drive to Brataslava and onto Prague picking up my new boat on the way, Galasport, Imo. Im pretty excited cos tried kynans in Aus and it went really well.

Aussie Freestyle champs

This weekend there has also been the aussie freestyle champs, they pumped up fryer at the bottom of the course and made it into a sweet hole/ wave. Kinda a bit of both. I didnt enter but took a c1 playboat for a spin down the course after. Good fun.

Training

Well its been a while since I have had an update about what ive been up to.
Well ive been pretty busy, with paddling 2 white water sessions a day, and fiilling in the rest of the day with excursions/ study.
We went to the Janolan Caves two days ago, they are about 2 hours into the mountains from Penrith and they are pretty cool, with heaps of stalagmites, stalagtites and columns!!
Yesterday I headed into town with Ash and some friends to Luna park right under the Sydney harbour bridge opposite the opera house. It was fun, hitting up the fun rides, the rollercoaster, prison break maze and the inverted pirate ship to name a few
And today I headed up to Woodford with Jono, Aussie C1 and rode 30 km back to Glenbrook right on the edge of darkness. We just made it out of the single track and ended up riding the last part down the tarseal in basically full darkness. Was pretty fun but glad to be home now!!
Yeah well training has been going well with lots of loops, and tech sessions with Rob Mcguiness, so learning a lot which I now have to put into practise. So I have 5 more days training here in Australia and then I return home to Dunedin for a week of study and to get things organised before I head to Europe just a week later to begin the build up for June selections and then the Games in August.

Caltex Fraser St Tga

A huge thank you goes out to the Fraser St Caltex service station for more support and helping me get to the world cups and hopefully Olympics later in the year.
They have been serving us gas and fixing our cars since we were kids. So thanks very much guys!!

Mighty "Rith"

Just arrived in Sydney last night for a two week training block at the course in Penrith and doing some work with Rob Mcguiness. Went for a paddle this morning, there have been some changes on the top section of the course which are pretty cool, wonder how long they will stay for though.





Photo source: www.penrithwhitewater.com.au