Greetings all,

I had a blast in Dartmouth, NS where I just spent one week amongst family and friends, training on Banook Lake, and taking a bit of recovery. The recent national team trials was the final stage of the qualification process for Gabriel and myself for the world championships in Poznan, Poland. We had a tough race against brother Ben and Richard Dalton, but managed to find another gear in the final 200m to win the race. This race was a great challenge for Gab and I because I think it helped prove to us that we’re ready to compete this season, and that we have the hunger necessary to win tough races. It was a challenging situation having to race against my brother Benny, but I think we both handled a less than ideal situation well, and were able to keep the stress and tension that comes with racing big races to a minimum.

I arrived back in Montreal for training last night, and this morning we were out training in C-2, on the water for just shy of 2 hours. It becomes important to start paying attention to the little details that let you have better practices more now than ever leading up to the world championships. I am feeling as though mentally the C-2 training and the technical aspects Gab and I have been working on are really beginning to come together, and I feel we are gaining some momentum.
In other news I am a recent and proud recipient of the Canadian Athletes Now Bursary. This is a fund designed to help athletes with expenses, and help them better achieve excellence. You can find out more about the fund at www.canadianathletesnow.com.

One last thing…despite the rumours, I have impeccable taste in movies.
Keep it real,
Andrew