Teen Cup 4

Yesterday was the last day of racing, for the Teen Cup Series and what a race it was. The first day I had real Good run to start the race off, but after about 2minutes of warming down Malcolm comes over and tells me and Callum that they had stuffed up the timing and the first 15 paddlers off had to go again. So 20minutes later we were off again. My next run went ok, not as good as my first one but was still alright. Leaving me in 4th place. There was a real long break betweens run so trying to stay out of the sun was proven difficult. My next run didn't go so well 50ing the first gate was pretty off putting and from there on in it all went down hill, accumulating 2 more 50s and serval touches i didn't think much more could of gone wrong. But the results stayed the same with me in 4th place and Callum in 8th, as well as finn making finals in u16. 

Semifinals, was a nervous wait. Just scraping through in 10th place with 10 going through to finals. Luckily i was able to have a good look at the video and see where i had gone wrong and make improvements on it. Finals did go a little better but picking up a touch wasn't the best. I ended up finishing in 5th position in a tight field where 1st and 2nd were only 0.01 of a second behind each other as well as 4th and 5th. 

I will post abit more on the teen cup series and upload a few photos when i get better internet as i only have 5mins left and i am flying home tomorrow. 

Piece Out.

Teen Cup 3

Today was the last day of the 3rd Teen Cup. I was sitting in 3rd position after a solid day of racing yesterday in the qualifications. But sadly semi-finals didn't go my way. I was having a pretty good run right up until the last up in the coarse, being the second to last gate. I dropped super low into it and spent a good couple of seconds trying to make my way back up. 

I finished up and quickly made my way to the top to see if by some miracle I made it into the top 10 to find i was sitting in 11th place by only 0.01 of a second off 10th, with 10 going through to the final. Callum was sitting in 12th position but protested a touch that the judges had given him, moving him up to 10th position just qualifying for the finals. Therefore leaving me in 12th overall. 

Teen Cup 2, done and dusted.

Today was the last day of Teen Cup 2, holding the Semi-finals and Finals. 

Team member Callum and myself both made the under 18 semi finals. I didn't have the best of days racing yesterday in the qualifications only just scraping into Semi-finals in 17th place with 20 paddlers going through.Team member  Finn also made it in under 16. 

The skill of the paddlers that were at this one and not the other one had raised quite a bit i thought. With alot of new faces about.

Semi-finals didn't go as well as i would have liked up the top. Dropping low into a couple of ups and sliding out in places.But it was lucky for me that the bottom of the course was alot better and also having the only clean run in the whole of the under 18 Semi-final, secured me a spot in the finals. 

I made it into the finals in 6th spot, with Callum narrowly missing out due to penalties, leaving him in 13th. 

My run in the finals was good. It was just a good solid clean run. I was on line majority of the run and utilized the mistake i had made earlier on in the semi finals as well as qualifications, leaving me pretty happy in 5th place. 

SIGHT SEEING

On Wednesday we went to have a look at one the many castles you see driving around Europe. 

We were lucky enough to have a guided tour around it and learn about the history. 

Just as well the tour guide was hot or i would of lost interest pretty early on in the piece. 

There were 600 steps that we climbed up, was a bit better than the 880 that we were told before hand. 

Teen Cup 2 is just around the corner

We arrived here in Liptovsky Mikula at the start of the week for the second Teen Cup, which has quickly approached us. 

Training on the coarse gets better as the days go by. The coarse consist of 2 chutes and and a number of holes throughout, which are prefect for ups and 'S' gates. 

The number of competitors will be similar to last week, but there are alot of new faces. 

The weather has seemed to play its part this week being between 25 and 35 degrees, apposed to last week being under 20 degrees and raining. 

Racing starts on Saturday and is from 9am to 8pm. I am unsure when my race is but the results can be found here http://avs.ktklm.sk/.

Teen Cup Number 1

Teen Cup 1 down 3 more to go. 

On Saturday the first Junior Cup was held in Bratislava, Slovakia. This is where the World Championship are held later on in there year and is the Olympic selection for New Zealand.  

There were roughly 300 athletes, from 15 different nations. 

Qualifications were on Saturday and if you made top 20 paddlers in your age group you went through to the semi-finlas on Sunday.

My first run in Qualifications was clean and solid, leaving my in 6th position. This meant i was able to experiment a little bit in run 2.

 

I more or less paddled the same as i did in run 1 but cut my lines a little bit more. I ended up going 3 seconds faster, but so did everyone else. I was left in 6th place going through to the semi finals.

Semi-finals, what a nervous wait that was. I finished my semi-final run not to happy having 2 touches, thinking i had no hope in making finals. 

Luckily i had the 3rd fastest flat time and i wasn't the only messy one. Therefore leaving me qualifying in 4th place into finals, with fellow team mate Callum Gibb hot on my tail in 5th. 

I went into finals with the mind set of going clean and just trying to have a solid run and i would be happy.  It was a pretty good run although I was still able to take in a few things i need to work on for next time, but it certainly left me very happy in third position and Callum in 5th.

Photo's were by Aaron Osborne. 

Check out his website http://www.aaronosborne.co.nz/

Europe

Made it to europe last night, trouble free. With kayak and gear all still intact. Sandra and Callum Gibb picked me up from the airport and we drove to Augsburg which was an hour from the airport. 

Got to Augsburg at about 7pm so was pretty tired after nearly 24 hours traveling with very little sleep on the planes. There was no doubt i caught up on it after a 13 and half hour sleep last night. Probably be awake all night tonight now. 

The course is pretty cool here, bit better than the last place we were at before leaving the states.

There is a cool little chute with a nice eddie on the left and the water going straight into a wall on the right about half way down the coarse. There are also a few nice ups on holes and good eddies the rest of the way down the coarse.