This years international racing season started with a trip to Vichy France. There was a big group of us selected to go over, some to gain experience and some to challenge the top kayakers in the world.
We arrived in France a week ago, to freezing conditions, literally. It was an especially competitive field of athletes, as everyone was there to test out the venue, as it has been selected as the World Champs course for 2011. Which also makes it the Olympic Qualification venue.
The regatta went very well with a few lessons along the way.....
The course was set on a river that winds it s way through the quaint French town. On the first day there was quite a strong current running down the course resulting in some impressive times. By Saturday and Sunday the rain water had been controlled up stream and the conditions had evened out.
We had a K4 competing together for the first time internationally under the coaching of Zoltan Bako Jnr., Cam and Stu were our K2 1000m boat, the Louw brothers, Greg and Ryan, were the second K2 200m with Shaun and Mike making up the K2 200 first boat. Two of K4 guys, Chrisjan and Fouche, were the K1 200m boats with Nick Stubbs and Len Jenkins in the 1000m and 500m races. In the women we had Golden Girl, Bridgitte Hartley doing all K1 distances and Jen Hudson competing in the K1 500m and 200m races.
All final results are on the race website www.vichycanoe2011.com but we will follow up with some posts on race reports.
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