The World Cup Tour 2008 commences. First stop: Szeged, Hungary

Greetings sports fans,

Well we are now all settled in Hungary, the boats have arrived so we are able to train again properly. The hotel is very nice, I currently have a room to myself while Adam is training in Sweden. I’m looking forward to my roomy coming on Tuesday, but it is nice to have some extra room to myself while I adjust to the time change. Plus, I get the choice of beds, which in this case is quite an advantage, sorry Adam. My choice of bed didn’t help me sleep last night though. Even though my body felt tired, I guess my mind still thought it was the middle of the day. Tonight should be better, as we will have two training sessions today to tucker me out, where yesterday because of the boats not arriving we only had one easy one.

The boats arrived this morning, and Canada will be using all white boats this trip for the most part. I had asked Nelo for a special design, but I guess they either didn’t have time to make it, or are saving it for if I make the Olympic team. While I was a bit disappointed not to see my cool paint job I requested, I know that what the boat looks like doesn’t affect the speed of it, so it isn’t a big deal. I felt great in it this morning during our session. It was nice to get out and do a workout with the whole canoe team, something I haven’t done since Florida.

We have a big team in Europe this year, and I’m really happy with the attitude of the whole team and how well we are getting along. The atmosphere around the team is great, and I think it is going to help our racing. We are playing a lot of cards right now. As the legendary Andrew Russell would say, “The game… is Ten Trick”. It is a great game, full of wild bets and out of control burns. Poker also made its first appearance of the trip earlier this evening, much to the relief of Aruss, Kyle and Attila, who were anxious for the boat trailer to arrive not because it held their boats, but because it also carried our poker chips.

Of course we need to finds lots of ways to amuse ourselves right now even though we spend 7 hours a day “screwing around at the course”, as calculated by Ryan Cuthbert who didn’t even use a calculator! A big chunk of time goes to napping and watching pay per view movies charged to Morty and Kyle’s room, thanks guys. This evening we had a paper airplane throwing contest off the ninth story of our hotel. It was a heated competition until the bats came out and forced us back into our rooms. They are pretty cool animals, so fast and maneuverable, and I can see why they are named after batman, because they look a lot like him.

Well that’s all for now, thanks for reading, keep your paddle in the water.

A team mate and spectators point of view on the amazing performance by team Canada at Olympic Qualifiers

Greetings,

First things first, I have to give a huge congratulations to the entire Canadian Team that raced last weekend at the Pan American Olympic Qualifier. Race after race they kept stepping up and beating, no, that isn’t a strong enough word, DOMINATING their competition to secure spots for Canada in every event in Beijing. I had a lot of confidence in my team mates, but I knew that the other countries were also ready to rock so I was a little worried that we may not get all the spots. Of course my worries were for naught, wiped away by truly inspiring performances in front of an awesome home town crowd. All the energy and excitement of the Canadian fans was great and made me wish I was out there racing as well, and I could tell that our team was feeding off it. It makes me excited about next year’s World Championships in Dartmouth, where I know the crowd will be even bigger and louder. To be honest, I felt bad for the other countries, as only the winner in each event qualified for the Olympics, and that was Canada in almost every race. We at C4C have made many friends from the other Pan American countries, and often cheer for them if Canada is not in the race, so it is a little disappointing that they can’t go to the Olympics as well. That is racing however, and everyone knew how tough qualifying was going to be this year. So that is my take on Pan Ams as a spectator, but you should really check out Gab and Aruss’ entries to see what was going on in the heads of some real speed racers. I did get to take some photographic images while I was cheering from the side. We will be adding some better, professional photos soon, but for now you can check mine out at this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26844519@N04/show/

In other news, yesterday we had a big media day at the Burloak Club, and every single newspaper, radio and TV channel you could think of showed up to interview me, Brady and Pellini. Oh, and they talked to Adam a bit too… But seriously, it was pretty crazy, Adam is quite the celebrity now. Thanks to yesterdays interviews he even has a celebrity feud with Elvis Stojko, which is pretty cool. At first glance you would think Adam could take him, but Elvis knows freakin Kung Fu, and has razor sharp blades on his boots. The feud could really get spicy, as fellow Burloak paddler Scott Fisher, who is close friends with Stojko, has yet to comment. It is also unknown whether World Champion figure skater Jeffrey Buttle, who is cousin to Burloak paddler and coach Hunter George, will get in on the action.

As for me, my training is going well and I’m finally feeling in shape again after peaking for Trials and taking some time off to recuperate. My speed is also starting to come along and I’m feeling more comfortable in my boat than I have all year. I’m looking forward to getting some good training in at Burloak this week and then heading over to Europe next week for our World Cup races.

Until next time, thanks for reading, and keep your paddle in the water.

Check it out! The first C4C post Olympic Trials post!

Much success!

Last weekend was our Olympic Trials and it went extremely well for all of us on the C4C team. I won both C1 races, while Gab and Andrew took both of the C2’s, giving us both a great start in earning our Olympic Team nominations. Morty also had amazing performances in C2 with Kyle Jeffrey, finishing third in the 1000 and second in the 500, earning them a trip to Europe and keeping them in the hunt for the Olympic spot. I was genuinely impressed with the way Morty raced; he looked awesome in the front of that C2 and was going nuts the whole way. Congrats to Kyle for keeping up to him. I know what it is like to come back from injury, and I know how hard the first race back for me was, and I have to say again how impressed I was with the way Morty stepped up in his first real race back from being injured.

As for myself, I was pretty happy with both of my races. I have to admit that in the weeks leading up to trials I was pretty nervous. The combination of having to defend my spot from last year, as well as the whole “Olympic” thing, plus some problems with my shoulder, made me a little stressed out. When I got to Gainesville for the trials however, I started to feel a lot better. It was time to race again, and I realized that racing is what I love to do, and what I am good at, so I shouldn’t stress out about it. I knew that Rich and Tom were both in good shape and much faster than last year, which meant that it was going to be my toughest trials yet and I was going to have to step up and give it my best race.

Lining up for the 1000, I was surprised how calm I was. Once I lined up it felt like all the pressure of it being Olympic Trials went away, and it came down to simply being another race. It was going to be a hard race, but it was still just a race. I got a good start and pulled ahead in the first 250m, and felt like I was paddling efficiently and not killing myself to take the lead. Tom and Rich were behind but only by about a boat, so I could just see them in the corner of my eye. After about 350m or so, Tom started to make a move, and while normally I would wait a little longer before picking it up, I didn’t want to give up any ground so I went with him and stayed ahead. The rest of the race was a dog fight between the two of us, and we pulled away from everyone else. It took a huge effort to fight him off the whole way, and I was completely exhausted when we crossed the line. Despite a noticeable headwind, we both did 3:59, which I was really happy about and hopefully means good things to come for us at the World Cups. Like Tom said to me after the race, whoever ends up racing 1000 at the Olympics, they are going to be fast.

Heading into the 500 I felt very confident, not only because I had won the day before, but also because I haven’t lost to a fellow Canadian in that race since early 2005. I felt good in the heats and approached the final thinking that I owned that race and wasn’t going to let anyone take it from me. I was excited to race and was even smiling on the start line, which usually means I am going to race well. I took control from the start and didn’t look back. I felt powerful the whole way and stayed in control, not having to kill myself as much as I did in the 1000.

With victories in both distances, I am that much closer to getting to Beijing. I have two chances in each race to be the top Canadian at the World Cups, which will cement my nomination to the team. While I know the task is far from complete and Tom will be very competitive in Europe, it is nice to be in the driver’s seat as they say. If I can get into the same groove I was in at last years World Cups then I should be looking good.

Other than racing at Trials, I also got to watch some other great races. Congratulations to Adam van Koeverden for winning both his K1s and being nominated to the Olympic Team. Some people shrug it off because he is World Champion and makes it all look so easy, but it is still something to be proud of, no matter how fast you are. Aruss and Gab looked rock solid in C2, despite a little bit of a scare at boat control on Saturday… The Budays, as well as Ian and Kyle were right behind them and in good form, which should make for some exciting races in Europe. Emilie wasn’t at her best this weekend, but still managed second place and is still very much in the hunt for the K1 spot. The K2 races were exciting to watch, and it was really nice to see the young Burloak/Rideau K4 win convincingly, nice work guys.

I am now back at home recovering from what was a long training camp and hard competition. I enjoy Florida but I am also very happy to be home. I’ll use this week mostly to rest before getting back into full training next week. I’ll be going to Montreal next week for a bit of training and to watch the Pan American Continental Qualifier at the Basin, where my team mates will be racing to earn Canada the right to race at the Olympics. After watching Trials I feel like all our crews have a great chance to qualify and I’m looking forward to some exciting races.

Finally, I’d like to thank all my family who came down to watch and cheer for me. Nana and Poppa, Aunt Cyndie, Adam and Tessa and of course my Mom, thanks for being there. Well, that’s all for now, thanks for reading.

Oh ya, results from Trials can be found by clicking HERE