Finals in Bratislava and back in Prague

The fun surfing wave half way down the course where you can get 1/2 a metre air when crossing over


A nice little rapid at the top of the course.

23.7.06

Well, I didn’t have the best nights sleep. Our room turned into a sauna with the heat and being a Saturday night the blazing music from the party across the street until 4am didn’t help. So I felt really tired before I even raced today.

The course set for the finals was extremely difficult. The World Champ Robin Bell and Silver Olympic Medalist Micheal Martikan risked too much on gate 8 and got 50s. I was having a very solid run until gate 17 when I cut the gate too tight and gained a 50. With the water flowing so fast it was impossible to paddle back up for. I then had a recuirk in gate 19 where I lost more time but then somehow minted the last gate where almost every paddler had problems.
This is one of the most unpredictable slaloms I have every competed in. A lot of the big names to win blew out. I ended up in 23rd place and James came 25th. I was a disappointed as I feel that if I had of kept my run flowing through those last few gates I would have easily got a top 10 placing.

Despite my placing I am happy with how my paddling is going at the moment with only 9 days now until the Worlds. We are now back in Prague staying in a really nice house close to the course. The lady is really looking after us and making sure we eat big healthy breakfasts. National training started again today so all the teams are all back here. I will have a well needed rest day tomorrow and will fix my boat and paddle.


And some other good news is that my university results have come through. I did really well in all my three papers.

Thanks to my lectures Alastair Roberston and Murray Potter for all their help with sitting my exams overseas on this Europe tour. They have been a great help in making sure I had all the notes, lectures and information I needed before I left New Zealand which helped me get the results I did.