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!!!