It was a great day for my paddling career and equally for The WAIS Canoeing Program as I claimed the first K2 National Senior Sprint Championship; Steve Bird and I won the K2 200m event in 33.87, just 0.01 seconds in front of 2nd place. The only other national title in recent years coming from Reece Baker's national K4 1000m win at the 2009 Australian Championships.
WA coveted some great performers at the 2010 National championships from many age groups: Kelvin Shortte in the 35+ K1, Ferenc Szekzsardi in the Open C1, Daniel Bowker and Brendan Sarson in the Open K-Class, and many youngsters in NTID/TID Kayak squads. WA represented well at this years titles.
The whole week went smoothly for me as competition didn't start until Day 2 (Thursday) and we arrived on the Sunday before so it gave me a chance to settle into the patterns of sleep, digestion and body rhythm, required for high performance.
I had the opportunity to jump up to the Blue Mountains on Monday for lunch and explore with some close friends before hitting the Bondi surf for a day in the great vibrant city of Sydney.
Racing was always on my mind, with one goal as focus: K2 200m victory!
We had made our prime aim to make 'process' our friend and to trust it. Each morning we would wake up earlier than what would be expected, get our body ready to fire and eat brekky as early as possible to allow digestion to kick off and be out of the way before it could impact. Our warm-up routines were spot on from the moment we put our racing gear on, to the time we hopped on the water before racing. As was our post race recovery; using ice baths and flush massages to stem the flow of muscle soreness and fatigue this was all a planned routine and had been practised long before we had landed in NSW.
The day came for our final of the K1 200 and the heat/final of the K2 200. We had a hot heat in the K2 and we knew we had to execute our race plan for practise in the final - later in the day.
The K2 200m HEAT: Steve and I burst out of the blocks and clicked into autopilot; our bodies had been through this so many times before. We won our heat in 33.9 and were pumped for our final.
The K1 200m FINAL: It was not my best race of the event, I had one false start against my name and just before the call "start within 10 seconds" my bow swung around right caused by a gust of wind. I was caught facing too far right and knowing I couldn't false start again. "(beep)" I was off and racing but after my first few strokes I wasn't where I usually would be - right up in the front line of bows pushing for the lead - I had fallen back to a nose behind after 50 meters. I felt great lock on the water with my blade but I had started so woefully that I couldn't fight my way back into the race; the 200m race leaves no room for error.
RESULT: I finished 9th, 1.5 seconds behind 1st.
After the K1 final I was not all that happy buy I had to evaluate the race quickly and move on. My partner Steve had a ripper Race and finished 4th in a lunge finish. I was very happy for him and it was a great result to work off for our K2 final.
After a swift recovery snack and rub down by our great physio Brett, we got back into our Pre-race routine. Fired up and ready to race we paddled our brand new nelo v3 k2 around the top of the course for our on-water drills and warm-up.
The K2 200m FINAL: We were called to the line, "please come to the start line"...then..."start within 10 seconds"....GO!!!
I am now looking forward to representing Australia at World Cups and Sprint Cups in Europe and the World Championships in August. I will then travel to Ireland to race in a world renowned race: The Liffey Descent before flying to South Africa to paddle the Fish River Marathon. All this before my return for the WA/Australian Ocean Paddling Series where I will be paddling the newest model Stellar SES Ski I look forward to some great results.
I was a very proud paddler from WA that day, and I really appreciate the support received from all my supporters:
WAIS
Stellar Kayaks and Skis
Precision Paddling
Helly Hansen
Skins
B.d. Farm Paris Creek
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