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.