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!!