Hi all,
I am in Singapore airport after a manic weekend of racing. It was the World Cup final and Australia's best performance in Canoe Slalom. The C2 and mens kayak raced Saturday. My young training partner Will Forsythe took a huge step by making the finals. He was in 4th place after the semi finals, and after a touch was still poised enough to finish in 7th. A massive step up, and a building block for the future.
The C1s and ladies kayak were on Sunday. My flight home to Sydney left at 2200 from Frankfurt 4 hours from the course. I had qualified in 4th place and was able to watch a few of the early paddlers race to confirm my choice in lines. There was a tricky combination between gates 1,2 and 3. Kynan Maley was off in mid pack and without getting the benefit of watching some racers struggled around these gates finishing in 21st. I took a conservative line at the top losing about 1.5 seconds off the fastest each run, but made up the time and more by being aggressive through the middle and bottom. I even managed to pull off a technical move I invented on the Swan Canoe Club gates in the late 90's. I led by 1.5 seconds going into the final and managed to increase the lead by a fraction.
By winning the World Cup final I also won the series. I am extremely happy with this, as going into the season my goal was to medal in 2 out of the 3 world cups. Winning the last World Cup is a great way to go into the Olympics.
I know what it takes to medal and the Olympics is what I am after this year. I have 3 weeks of training in Sydney before I fly to Beijing.
After the race, I had to load up my boat and headed straight for the airport. While I was on the road, Kate Lawrence won her first World Cup. This is her first medal and hopefully not her last. The junior Australian team arrived on Saturday and sang the national anthem for her at prize giving. I wish I had been there. Well done Kate!
Here is an article about the World Cup.