World Cup - Liptovsky Mikulas

With racing out of the way the team managed to hang around and watch the finals, try new boats and have a couple of easier days.  Ella, Shaun and Anna headed off to check out Salzburg whilst Ben, Malcolm and I went out for a traditional German meal. Malcolm even said it was almost as much meat as a home cooked farm meal. 

We then had a pretty long haul drive from Augsburg to Liptovsky Mikulas. On the way we called into Bratislava for a traditional Slovak meal and a much needed stretch of the legs. We all met up in Liptovsky to our accommodation which is just outside of town and pretty good considering the other options. Today everyone got on the water for the first time and I shot a couple of photos in the morning followed up by a 1/4s session in the evening. 

Comments From World Cup #2 and their first session at Liptovsky

Shaun

No Comment

Ella

Augsburg race was fustrating but fun! Liptovsky course seems cool so far.

Ben

Litptovsky seems like a typical Slovak town, course is pretty different to Augsburg, looking forward to exploring more around here.

Anna

The World Cup was a great experience for me and I enjoyed racing and training with top paddlers from all around the world. Not getting my boat was a disappointment but the test boat Galasport gave me did the trick. My first run on the course had some good bits but overall was pretty average. I managed to improve in my second run and was happy with how I had done at the end of the day. Overall I enjoyed the atmosphere of the World Cup and loved the experience of being involved in it. 

I finally have my boat now, which is super exciting and had my first session in it at Liptovsky today. The river is very fun and even though my boat has its first lot of scratches from the rocks I highly enjoyed the session.

Malcolm


Augsburg " The Friday qualifications was stress full as I was expecting. There were some really talented paddlers from other countries which I found quite intimidating in the start pool. I liked the course and I liked how I paddled parts. Unfortunately I didn't put together a whole run that was good but i can notch that up to experience, and use it to motivate me more when I am training so I can become consistent" 
Lipto " Liptovsky is by far a lot easier than Augsburg. It doesn't surge as much and you get more consistent water the whole way down. How ever it has it's own challenges and I am really struggling at the bottom to carry my boat speed so I can do the upstreams well. The club house is awesome! Maybe we could sort some thing like that at the lagoon!!"

Tacen and the town of Ljubljana

Staying in the DIC hostel in the centre of Ljubljana is certainly different to the Hotel Sabotin, however it meets our needs well. The breakfast this morning was ample and set us up well for our day although Dan is still off colour and not eating. Loaded up the vans and headed to the course at Tacen, probably a   

20 minute trip through the town however this morning it took much longer - some of us heard a metallic scraping noise coming from under the van above the noise of Pavels Czech rock music -' no' said Pavel " that is my music or maybe its just the building site we just went past" - if only it was that simple - the exhaust pipe had fallen off and was dragging along the ground - not easy to stop in rush hour traffic with a trailer laden with boats and a van which is like a little bus - had to use a bus stop but the bus drivers weren't happy.  Dale crawled underneath and hooked the pipe up with a bungy cord and we were on our way again - mind you the lead van with Martin driving and the map in it had long since disappeared and we were a little lost - managed to find our way with a bit of ingenuity and some memory left of Dales last trip here.

Kids out of the van and straight to the course to take a look - no water in it - just big lumps of concrete, some slime and a trickle down the middle ...... back to the vans and into gear, boats unloaded and bags stowed, back to the course to see the water beginning to rise - right on cue - it rose and became a paddlers paradise within the space of 10 minutes. Huge drop at the beginning leading into a series of stoppers and eddies, waves and holes and concrete islands. Kids loved it - and ran with their boats from the bottom of the course back to the top to take the drop again and again - a bit like when they were little kids on the hydro slide at the pool ....

Tommy working that paddle

Patrick

Deahna getting instruction from Pavel 

Pavel showing how it's done

Luke watching Marcus come down

Jess loved the drop

Haylee 

All learnt a lot in a short space of time - a few incidents and accidents with paddles dented and boats scarred but bodies intact. All too soon our allocated slot was over and the water started to leave .... into the vans to take Jess to the physio and get lunch - one of the local coaches led the way to the physio in his car and it took over half an hour to get there - left Jess there and the physio, a lovely lady who was physio for the Slovenian team, offered to drive her back to the course - everyone else ate lunch in the shade and then all back on the water at 2 pm. Poor old Luke had to just sit and watch until he drafted Deahna in for a mixed C2 on the flat water training channel next door. 

The new C2 crew

Two big surprises in the past 24 hours, the first one being that an old friend of some of the boys Reilly Edwards from Australia is here working and met us at the course today - he hung out with us all day and took us to a half price place for dinner tonight - it was brilliant

Reilly Edwards -Tour Guide

. Second surprise was when we were doing our quick walk around the town centre last night, we walked past an outdoor bar on the way to that padlock bridge, when some guy jumped up from a table and accosted Luke - Wendy went back with her boxing gloves on to discover it was his cousin - what a small world - to just happen to be sitting in a bar in the centre of Ljubljana and have your 16 year old cousin walk by - they all had their team tops on which is what drew the attention. Such a lovely surprise.

This evening kids all found their own way back to the hostel after tea in groups - and had a wonderful time wandering past the street performers, the open air cafes and bars, the crazy people, the lazy river, the stone walls and cobbled streets, bikes and roller bladers, beautiful old buildings and a lone sax player out in front of a beautiful fountain. Magic stuff that memories are made of. Home for an earlier night and a big days training tomorrow on the disneyland of slalom sites.

Ice Creams in Ljubljana

Semis and Finals Solkan 30/06/13

Our last breakfast at Hotel Sabotin - the kids will really miss the luxury of this for the rest of the trip!

All packed and ready to go with bags loaded into the vans and uniforms on and down to the course by 8 am - fabulous stay at this hotel we were all sorry to be saying goodbye.

Super hot day today - Deahna and Jess were forerunners today - the course looked deceptively simple but it didn't take many forerunners and the first of the paddlers to go through and 50 and then 50 again to realise it needed a bit more of a strategy at the bottom end. Kids had mixed results in the semis but as it turned out the organisers put everyone though to the finals anyway. We aren't sure of the reasoning behind this late decision but think it may have had something to do with their team selections for the World Champs and the need for clear U18 and U16 results for the national teams.

this might be a 50 for Patrick?

Callum in full flight

Marcus and Finn

   

Matthew another clean run

Finn

Tommy

It was an incredibly hot day today and the course has very little shade - there was great support from local people and in fact there has been a contingent of older folk down at the course each day sunbathing much to the kids suprise and disgust .... they display less modesty than the kids are used to seeing and while they are spread eagle on the rocks right in the middle of the walk way between gates, they smoke constantly and drink vodka from little cups - this starts at around 9am each morning and continues all day and sometimes has a few of those little dogs thrown in for good measure. 

smoking and kayaking dont mix

nice view from the office

The pressure was certainly on everyone for the finals and the final result of a gold medal in the C2 U18 for Marcus and Finn , a bronze medal for Luke and Dan U16 C2, (they were certainly gold medal contenders after 3 great runs but the final run went astray and they 50'd down the bottom end) Haylee pulled out a great run for an U18 bronze in a very tough field. Tommy gained a well deserved bronze medal after great runs all weekend - he was called to the podium and didn't believe it ..... 

The others who raced finals all did well in the blistering heat - 

We packed up the vans and loaded the trailer and then waited for the prize giving ceremony - they were very efficient and it ran at exactly the time they said it would. A very slick operation. Great to see the New Zealand flag flying.

Haylee - bronze

the only bit of shade around - waiting for prize giving

Finn and Marcus gold

Dan and Luke bronze

Haylee

Tommy bronze

Into the vans and headed down the road to Ljubljana and the university hostel near the centre of the old town - everyone was tired and hungry so we headed out to find somewhere to eat recommended by the hostel - not great and in fact poor old Daniel didn't manage to hold it together and lost his days intake just off to the side of the tiny narrow cobbled street we were all sitting in - too much sun, not enough water and too much exercise caught up with him - shut the others up though so that was a bonus.Dale walked back to the hostel with Dan and Martin and Wendy and Pavel took the group for a wee quick look in the old town centre and Wendy introduced the girls to the padlock bridge - they have all decided to get a lock and leave it there with their initials on and to come back in the future with the love of their life and unlock it .... boys a little less enthusiastic about this idea.

Off to the course at Tacen in the morning for a scheduled training at 10am  - we may try and find a swimming pool somewhere tomorrow also.

Lunch in the only shade at solkan

Race day saturday 29th June

The day began with an early breakfast and all the paddlers being well organised and away down to the course in plenty of time to walk the course with the coaches and warm up - weather was calm and sunny and got pretty hot as the day wore on.

Patrick was lucky enough to lead the way for the NZ contingent as second paddler to leave the start over all - a great European experience for the kids with lots of supporters, extremely loud Slovenian supporters with those air horn things they blast in each others ears when ever their paddlers come down the course - for those of you who haven't worked out how to get live results this is the link for tomorrows semi finals and finals - www.canoeliveresults.com and choose the eca junior cup link. 

Martin and Pavel taking splits

Finn getting advice from Pavel for his second run

The kids tell me that somehow you can have both the live web cam and the live on course results up on your computer at the same time - All the kids raced well for New Zealand today and most certainly deserved to get the results they achieved - Jess and Deahnas second runs were great - unfortunately they both incurred 50's which put them out of semi-final contention but they will lead the racing tomorrow as forerunners. Robin put down two good runs and Haylee was right up with the front of the field. Both girls go through to the semis tomorrow. All the boys have made semis - against a pretty strong field of Slovenian paddlers jostling for selection into their junior team.

Coaches are pleased with everyone's efforts and we had the pleasure of having Martins Father and Brother and their partners as part of our support crew. Martins father was very proud of his New Zealand tee shirt.

Martins father Ivan and his friend Sonja, 

Lunch was eaten at the course - then back up to the hotel to chill out and watch world cup on computers. Late afternoon tea and back down to the course for demonstration runs on the newly set semi final/finals course. We ate dinner outside on the grass and only two people rejected the asparagus in the bacon and asparagus pasta - very proud of them.

Slow walk down to the town square - Callum trusted with the money for an ice cream for everyone - big responsibility and one he handled with dedication - kids may have sampled all the flavours on offer now so its obviously time to move on. They have all been asked to pack their stuff tonight but my money is on the fact that it will be a rush job in the morning before they leave for the course.