The weekend of racing here in Szeged proved to be a bit disappointing for Mike and I. We started off pretty well on friday afternoon racing the 500m K2 heat and semi and progressing through to the A-final. The 500m A-final went fairly well eventhough we crossed the line in 7th position. We had a good race in that we were 2nd through the half way mark and were in the mix for a medal, only to fall off the pace in the last 100m.
Our 200m K2 was the real disappointment. Mike and I had a good heat, winning pretty easily and were confident going into the semi final that we could win it and move onto the A final to contest for a medal. Our expectations were dashed in the semi when we had a bad start and just couldn’t claw our way back at the other crews and had to settle for 4th in the semi and in the B-final. Having learned a good but tough lesson in the Semi final, we bounced back in the B-final to win by a fair margin, relieving some of our disappointment from the semi final the previous day.
We are heading home today to have a short rest before we start our preparations for World Champs in the middle of August. I am looking forward to getting home, spending quality time with my beautiful fiance 
 and enjoying the festivities of the Soccer World Cup. I am definately supporting Bafana Bafana and I am sure that we can spring some suprises on the big nations.
I have been in Szeged for almost a week now training in preparation for our last world cup of the 2010 season. Training has been going well and we are starting to get excited about racing next weekend. We have set ourselves big goals for this world cup so we are going out there to give it our all and hopefully walk away with a medal this time around.
The weather has continued to be pretty grey, cold and miserable which is horrible especially knowing that my fiance at home is enjoying a weekend in Cape Town with temperatures in the mid to high 20′s. I am definitely looking to forward to getting back home and to be able to enjoy the beauty of Cape Town with my very own beauty, Ruvenna, AKA VennieV.
The pic above was taken during our morning interval session .
Last week Mike, Hayley, Marcus and I headed over to Portugal to spend a week at the new Nelo training centre. The training centre is absolutely brilliant with 5 start accommodation and food and of coarse we had Nelo there to make sure that everything was sorted out for us and that our stay was perfect.
Andre spent a fair deal of time with us testing our boat in order to find the best setup for us in the K2. I believe we achieved a lot and we look forward to racing our new boat in Szeged next weekend and taking a step forward and onto that podium.
On Saturday afternoon after training we took a drive to the mountains and did a recovery session in the frozen lake. It was pretty cold but awesome to be swimming in a lake surrounded by snow. We are now in Szeged preparing for the World cup which will start next weekend.
World Cup 1 is done and I am very satisfied. This season has been very interesting for me as my training has been completely different from previous years. My focus has been on speed for the 200m K2 with Mike and its awesome to finally know that the training that we are doing is working and that we are ALMOST as fast as the fastest boat at the moment. While we ended up coming 4th in our 200m A final, we were only 0,3 sec off the French in 1st, 0,2 sec off the Spanish (Olympic champions) in 2nd and 0,016 behind the Danish in 3rd. Our result has given me a lot of confidence going forward, both in our ability as a combination and that our training so far is on track and we are making real progress.
We also raced the 500m K2 which was good considering that we have not given the 500m much thought at all. Mike and I had really good heats and semi’s to make it through to the A final and even though we had to settle for 8th in the final, our race was very solid, we learned some good lessons and we are sure we can go faster still in the 500m. Even though the 500m is now off the Olympic program, it is still a very interesting race as the 200m guys are using it as good training for their endurance and the 1000m guys are using it to improve their speed. At this regatta, the 1000m guys out performed the 200m guys in the 500m K2 but hopefully that will change in the next race in Szeged in 3 weeks time.
Bridgitte Hartley was the only other South African to make A finals and ended up with a 2nd in the 1000m K1, 5th in the 500m K1 and 7th in the 200m k1. Nick Stubbs did really well in his first regatta racing K1, placing 2nd in the 500m B final while the Louw brothers also performed really well in their first World Cup together, finishing 4th in the 200m K2 B final. Jen Hodson was our only other paddler to make it into the B finals which was really good considering she took 18 months off after the Olympics.
Marcus, Mike, Hayley (Mikes wife) amd I are currently in Portugal at the Nelo training centre for a week of intense training to get our fitness levels back up after a tough weeks racing. We are in the most beautiful resort with absolutely everything that we need right at our door step. We really are being looked after well here. The only thing is that I am here in this amazing resort without my beautiful fiance who unfortunately has had to stay at home while I am away training and racing. I am already really missing Ruvenna which makes being away from home a whole lot tougher.
The pic above is of Mike and I feeling pretty chirpy after qualifying for the 500m A final.
I am in the little town of Vichy in France at the moment. I have been here for a week already and it has been so cold here until today, when the weather finally improved and the mercury jumped into the teens. We are paddling on a river which has gone into flood with all the bad weather which has meant that there is quite a current flowing down the course. Quite an experience to be sprinting down a course that is flowing like the Fish River.
Racing started today with the 1000m events and 500m for ladies events. I am only starting tomorrow and I will be competing in the 500 and 200m K2 with Mike Arthur. The SA guys never had the best day unfortunately with no one going through for the B or A finals. Nick Stubbs had a very good semi and finished 4th in a very tough semi, but was disqualified for racing on the side of lane. The SA girls did well with Bridgitte Hartley making the 500m K1 A final and Jen Hodgson making the B final. They will race out the finals tomorrow morning.
From tomorrow afternoon I will have quite a tight schedule with the the 500m heats and semi tomorrow afternoon and the 200m heats semi and final as well as the 500m final all on sunday. Very excited to race and see how we match up to the rest of the world.
