WORLD CHAMPS 2010 B-Final 7th

Being at a World Champs is something amazing. Standing around and racing the worlds best paddlers fills you with such energy you cant describe. Unfortunatly the weather turned for the worst with rain and strong winds hitting the course making it very unpleasent to be on the water but as we always say, "you cant choose race conditions". We had 3 heats and 2 semis to make it through to a final. We didnt have the greatest race and struggled to find the rythem but squeezed into the B-Final by 0.2sec. Having only squeezed into the B-final we new we had to prove to ourselves that we were better than that and have a better final race. We had an awesome start and held it right the way through to finish 7th. We had now beaten crews that we had never beaten before and were alot closer to the winners aswell.

Last paddling session before boats head to Poznan

PW, Len, Fouche, Tiff, Gavin and Chrisjan

After the training session we decided to see how good our core was. We had seen the British girls do the same the day before they left and thought we could give it a shot. We made it up and down but rather wobbly

This morning we had our last paddling session as the boats are being put on the trailer this afternoon for Poznan. It has been an exciting 3weeks here in Hungary with the team and all is going really well till date. The hotel is empty as all the other teams have left for Poznan already or gone home for a few days. We unfortunatly dont live close enough so have stayed an extra 2days.

Budapest Site Seeing

Bridgett, Chrisjan, Calvin and Gavin

PW and Chrisjan struggling to pay for a train ticket cause the machine wouldnt accept all there coins and held up a bunch of people waiting to purchase tickets.

One of Budapests beautiful bridges crossing the Danube river which seperates Buda from Pest.

Zoli and his team

PW & Chrisjan at Hungarian F1 Grand Prix

PW and Chrisjans outing to the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix on Sunday. They took a risk by going to the track without having bought tickets before hand. It was an extra 45min trip from Budapest so it could of been a long day on the trains with no result but it paid off and they had the most awesome time.

Its been almost a week that we have been in Hungary and with our only rest day this week we decided to go to Budepest, the capital of Hungary. We were told its a 2km walk to the train station where we will later hop onto a tram and end up on the outskirts on Budepest. Shouldnt take longer than an hour they said. WELL, just over an hour walk in the heat we found the train station and another 2 hours later we were in Budepest. At this point the team split with PW and Chrisjan heading to the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix and myself, Fouche and Tiffany staying in Budepest. When we arrived we met up with Bridgett Hartley our 500m and 1000m K1 women paddler. She is based here for most of the year to train with her coach Nandor Almasi. We had a look at the area she stays in and walked around town having a look at some awesome old buildings, monuments and other amazing structures. As the day dragged on we got one message from the guys at the Grand Prix to say they having a blast but struggling with the noise from the cars. Will hopefully get a detailed breakdown from the guys on how there experience was.

K4 Training

Being on the SA Sprint team we have been fortunate enough to have two K4's at our disposal. We have a brand new Nelo Vanquish 3 and an old Nelo Vanquish 1. We previously used the Vanquish 1 at the first World Cup in Vichy France and were not sure weather we enjoyed the boat or not so we changed to the Vanquish 3 for the second World Cup in Szeged Hungary. After hearing different opinions on which is the better boat we finally made up our minds that the Vanqish 1 was by far the more comfortable bout for us. This morning we took to the water for our first speed session in the K4 (12x1min with 1min rest). We had done the same session the previous day in our K1's and were feeling a bit tender with the gym sessions included. From Zolli's first "HUP" we had a good rythem. It was the first time for me that we felt so good in such a long time. Its looking very promising and iam looking forward to our weeks training ahead.

Hungary Training Camp before World Champs Starts

So we back in Hungary on a three week training camp before we head to Poland for World Champs. We at a new venue just out side a town called Dunavarsany. Its an old venue which was built in 1968 with a few changes since then. We staying alongside the water with everything on our door step. Gym, boat house and retaurant. Theres alot of water to train on and looking forward to some hard training going forward. There is only a few of us training together this time as others have decided to stay home and come over later. The training group consists of PW Basson, Chrisjan Coetzee, Fouche Van Tonder and and myself Gavin White who make up the K4 aswell as Stu Waterworth racing the 200m K1 and Tiffany Kruger racing the 500m K2. Our previous diet here consisted of chicken, mash potato, pastry and rice. Very little healthy food and no variation. We are fortunate enough to have a great dietition back home who organised with the chefs here on what food we need. Today we will be climbing back into our Nelo K4 after training in an old Vandusen back home. We look forward to feeling the rythem again and hope all goes well. Unfortunatly the internet isnt great here but will try keep everyone posted on what we been upto.

Accomodation Pretoria

We staying 2minutes drive from Roodeplaat Dam in this quiet house where the hosts are looking after us really nicely. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is always a treat with a home cooked meal as well as a good desert afterwards. When we arrived on Monday night it was freezing cold having 3 blankets and heater on full tilt to keep us warm. Since then it has warmed up nicely and the evenings are quite pleasant.

Trip to Pretoria for 2 week training camp

Its been almost 3weeks since we returned home from our first International Sprint Tour. We had a welcomed weeks rest where we each went off to visit family and spend time with our loved ones. In our build up towards our next tour, we focusing alot on our physical strength getting into the gym and as Zoli says, "One Size bigger". We 2weeks into the cycle and I for one can feel a huge difference. I had bought a new set of bigger blades before i left Hungary and have only now been able to pull them through the water comfortably. With three of us living in the Cape we unfortunatly experience the cold of the winters a little more than the guys in Durban and Pretoria making it difficult to train. None the less we out there making the most of it. It had been a while since I last spoke to Fouche in Pretoria but had updates from Zoli that his training was on track. We all off to Pretoria on Monday 21st June for a 2 week training camp. Fouche will be hosting us and has organising everything which is much appreciated. He has got us boats, organised accomodation, gym and a restaurant to eat at. Iam looking forward to training with the team and getting into the K4 again.

World Cup Race Report - Szeged Hungary 2010

The second world cup of 2010 was held in Szeged Hungary on the Olympic Training Course. With some 43 countries attending the event it made it very exciting to be part of. Hungary is well known for its big crouds of people who come to watch the weekends racing, making you feel like a big celeb. The 1000m k4 event had 3 heats, 2 semi finals and a A and B final. To make it through to the semi's we had to finish in the top 7. Once in the semi's you have to finish in the top 3 for A-final and 4-7 went to B-final. Day one we raced our 1000m K4 heats where we finished 4th making it through to the semi finals. We were drawn in lane 7 for the semi and had a point to prove to make a final after a disappointing result in the first World Cup in Vichy. We went out hard and held a good pace for most of the race but narrowly missed out on a A-final by finishing 4th. We raced the B-final really well, leading the race for the first 750m but lacked a little kick to end up 3rd in the B-final. Our work in Hungary is now done and will head home for a 1 week break then focus on training for World Champs in August.

Ladies K4

Steering - Tiffany Kruger, 2nd Esti Van Tonder, 3rd Richell Van Coller and 4th Lindi-May Harmsen

Final Preperations the Night before Race Day

Its the night before racing and all final preperations must be done. The first race of the day is the ladies 500m K4 with Tiffany Kruger, Esti Van Tonder, Richelle Van Coller and Lindi-May Harmsen taking to there first International Senior Sprint Regatta. They have spent little time together in the boat but have made the most of the time they had on hand. They are looking good and ready for the challenges ahead. Later in the day Tiffany will be jumping in a boat with 2008 Olympian Jen Hodson to race the ladies 500m K2 event. Also racing ladies 500m K2 is Esti and Richelle. We wish them all well and and will be routing for them all the way. Following there early morning heats and semi finals Chrisjan, PW, Fouche and myself will be warming up for our 1000m K4 heat. We have had a good build up and feeling at our best. We were fortunate enough to have Nelo polish our boat for us and have it racing ready. We have a tough field to compete against but are up for the challenge. Will try keep everyone posted with days results

Novotel Hotel

After a good weekends rest, we all had a good time to recover and prepare for the final two weeks training. The week consisted of alot of gyming and running as the final week would have none of it. Zollie kept us on our toes and every session was was done with only one vission, A Final 1000m K4. At the end of the week we all had to move out of the Olympic training village and into the city centre. We have moved into the Novotel Hotel which is situated along side the Tizsa River which runs from the French Alps and through Hungary. It is currently in complete flood and covering the roads along side it in Szeged. The last few days there has been a street festival running from one end of the city to the other. The whole city comes to a stand still and people flock the streets enjoying the first sight of european summer and enjoying cultural stores along side the roads. The final weeks preperation will be fine tuning our techniques and boats rythum.

A welcomed Rest day and Robin Hood

So after a long week of hard training we have finally been given a day and a half off. Saturdays training was completed all in the morning with a 4km Run, 10 x 150m intervals paddling and a good gym session. Was awesome to lounge about the rest of the day and do what ever we felt like doing. Some played cards, others watched movies and the series addicts watched The Vampires Diaries. We have been in Szeged for almost a week now and havnt done much in town so we all headed to town to go watch a movie and walk around town central. The only english movie on was Robin Hood which was a perfict choice. We missed the start of the movie due to a mal function in our sence of direction but made it none the less. What an awesome movie and cant wait for the sequel. Szeged has a wine festival on at the moment and the streets were buzying. People everywhere singing dancing and just enjoying good company. Monday is the start of another hard week before we tapper for the World Cup.

World Cup 1 - FRANCE and Training in Szeged

A quick update on our World Cup Tour:

Our week in France was quite an experience. After having convinced ourselves it would be warm in Vichy for our weeks stay we were horribly mistaken. We had near freezing conditions with rain and wind nearly every day and a flowing river to race on which was melted snow from up in the mountains to add to it. With only being aloud 20kg luggage we were limited for space to cater for all the different conditions. That 20kg had to include our paddles as well which didn't help the cause. After one days training we had used ALL our paddling gear in an attempt to try keep warm. Thanks to the hotels room heating, we put them on full tilt while we were out to dry the clothes which worked like a charm. Race day was something else with tempretures still down but with all the excitement of racing our first international senior sprint regatta our minds had switched off to everything else and all focus was on racing. Lining up with the world's best paddlers on the start line was something else. Sitting at the back of the K4 you get to see all the other competitors facial expressions determination before heading to the line. Chrisjan being the youngest had the huge responsibility of keeping us ina straight line and holding the stroke rate according to plan. Fouche and PW are the two bigger guys in the K4 and deliver the power when needed. One minute to start and game on. START WITHIN 10 SECONDS 'GO'. We were off in our first senior sprint reggata. We had an awesome start and were with the guys for most of the way but unfortunatly lacked the strength the other boats had at the finish but sneaked into the semi finals. With nothing to lose we went out the blocks flat outand held it for 700m where we were in contention but once again lacking power to finish strongly. We were knocked out in the semi finals and hugely disappointed but now knew what we had to do to get to the top. The following day we went out to support our 200m specialists who were there to show the world a thing or two. Sunday morning we were up early for our trip to Szeged Hungary. What a long trip it was. Arriving at the venue around 9pm that night. The following morning we woke up to the most amazing venue. We are staying at the Hungarian Olympic training village. We have a perfect training course to train on, food is awesome and never short in quantities and bedrooms are really comfortable for a good nights sleep. We as the SA team were very fortunate to receive brand new NELO Vanquish III to train and race in. Zoltan and Adro, the two coaches are doing a brilliant job in setting us programs and helping us improve in all ways for the next world cup. At the moment we training up to 4 times a day with running, gyming and paddling all mixed up to make a long hard days training. The general training day consists of getting up at 7am for the first session, 8am breakfast, 10am second session, 12pm lunch, afternoon nap, 5pm third training session and sometimes a fourth session just before dinner. With all this training our bodies take a huge amount of punishment and we are fortunate to have a full time phsio, Julia. She is unbelievable in aiding in healing our pain and injuries. The team as a whole are combining really well and we all in good company. Only two more weeks till the second world cup and still a lot of hard work ahead.