It has been a rather hectic week here in Penrith for me to be honest. I had a few trips to the airport trying to get my kayak from the Cargo place, and was finally successful on the Thursday, the afternoon before the race. I borrowed boats to train in up until the race which was okay, except for the big crack I put in Paul (Canadians) boat and the fact that paddling other peoples boats just isn’t the same as training in your own! Anyway by Friday all was okay and I felt okay for the race. I qualified for the Semi-final (top 30) in 21st place. My 1st run I got given a 50 second penalty. My 2nd run was 2 seconds faster than my first run and I had 1 touch. My time was 113.00+2. The fasted Qualifier was Corrina from Austria with a 101 I think. Luuka was the only other Kiwi girl to qualify and was in 23rd. Shaun Higgins qualified for the C1M.
In my semi-final I was feeling a bit nervous and screwed up the first move. I had to do a back off and lost time. I took a touch in gate 15 and lost a bit of time leading into gate 16. I need to work on my edges and core stability a lot along with keeping my paddle vertical and my top arm straight. I ended up in 23rd place with a time of 125+2. The fastest was about a 112. Corrina the Austrian won. Edern Le Ruyet from France won the C1M.
For C1W I had some pretty messy qualification runs which were a reflection of my lack of training. In the Semi-final I managed to get all the gates which was enough to put me through to the Finals in 8th position. I was hoping to improve a lot in my Final run however this was not to be the case. I had a bit of an unfocused moment at the top of the course and this caused for me to miss a stroke and power flip in the 1st hole! I then proceeded to Miss Gates 2 and 3. It was disappointing as the bottom half of my run was not so bad.
Now I am resting in Penrith for the rest of the week training. Our French coach Thomas is here until Thursday so will be coaching me, Mike, Aaron and Calum.
I am going for a sleep now as I am super tired!
