Tacen Qualification

A beautiful day in Slovenjia welcomed us to the river today for the qualification event at the second stop of the world cup circuit. I had a good week of training recovering from the food poisoning of last weekend. The week started well with a good day of training with the team head coach Michal and the other mens kayaks. I also worked one on one with Jim Jayes working on the missing pieces in the puzzle that have been nagging me of late. Heavy rains on Wednesday raised the water levels on Thursday cancelling training for the day and providing higher than normal water levels for the training slots on Friday. The increased flow made for a fun last day before the competition but unfortunately a return to normal flows for the race means quirky surges and the need for complete focus and the willingness to work hard.

 

I had a good night last night which was welcome after last weekends antics and left for the river in good spirits and feeling refreshed. Demos showed a fair but tricky course and I was excited to get my turn out there. Warm up went well and I spent a lot of time mentally rehearsing the course and patterning the pacing model that I would need to paddle the way I want to paddle from now on.

 

My run started a little rough as I was slightly off line going down the very large first drop on the course, I was slightly low heading into gate two which was the first upstream. Fortunately I had done my homework and I was quickly back online and had a very solid and comfortable run. I crossed the line in first place by more than two seconds and was only beaten in the end by Peter Kauzer who was the last paddler to come down the river.

 

I must say that it felt very good to have a run go well after so many runs that have not gone to plan lately. I was able to stick to my race plan and pacing model and to be rewarded is a great boost to my confidence in what I have been working on of late. There is a long way to go this year with the World Championships being the focus and this run was a great step in a positive direction.

 

My second run started extremely well, I fixed my mistake in the first drop and was quickly into gate two, unfortunately I was caught off guard by the surge in gate three and was surfed across the river having to react quickly and sprint back to make gate four. This cost me in excess of six seconds and left me very cautious the rest of the way down the course. With the strength of my first run I was still able to qualify in 23^rd place and with the exception of gate four the rest of the run was very solid.

 

Scott Parsons of the US won the qualifier with a very fast second run over home town favorite Peter Kauzer. The course map for tomorrows final looks very difficult and the stage is set for a very exciting race.