rest day....Liptovsky Jan

Very lazy catch up day today - perfect weather and those kids who were off colour yesterday slept the morning away and we all generally took it easy with walks in the local streets, visits to the local shop for icecream, a visit to the cold mineral pool down the road, some card and scrabble playing, and a bit of homework .... that is except the management and coaches who attacked the mountain of washing - in fact such a big mountain that they were turned away from the first laundry .... restocked the pantry and organised lunches and dinner and snacks, fixed boats, padded out boats and glued foam and paddles .....No more sickies, just some worn out bodies so the rest has been very beneficial. Tomorrow we have our first training at 8am and another at 2pm so its an early start. The U23 group are having a rest day and some of them are heading up into Poland to do some site seeing.

What follows is a selection of photos from the racing yesterday in Krakow courtesy of Adam Pavlowski, a polish team photographer.

Finals day, a day of two halves .....

Apologies for no blog at the end of the day yesterday - we had a bit of a nightmare at the end of a successful kayaking day.

Conditions for the mornings semi finals were perfect - the river had dropped a little and as yet it wasn't too hot - however it got hotter and hotter as the day wore on and the kids began to droop a bit. Some of them still haven't figured out the need to remember to take water bottles with them but maybe after yesterday and a few growlings they may remember from now on.

Deahna during the semi finals

Everyone went through from semi finals to finals - despite the managers meeting being told that only 10 would progress they decided after semi finals, and after we had had lunch, that they would put the whole field through with the exception of the C1 U18 field, and they brought the finals start time forward by an hour

- this meant that Tommy missed out on a final and Matthew had a huge lunch and discovered he was to paddle the final ... bit of an odd set of rule changes at the last minute.

Robin

Big crowds were in attendance with the usual smattering of old wrecks in their bras and undies - odd custom - lots of people biking, roller skating and walking as the course is backed by a public sealed river track which goes all the way into the centre of Krakow.

Haylee

 Racing was exciting with the whole of the Polish junior team in competition, and the top Slovakians also competing. The american team were also competing. Racing was tight but saw Luke and Dan gain a bronze in the U16 C2 and Haylee pulled off an amazing run to take silver in U18 K1 with only a small margin  separating her from gold. An excellent performance in a strong field which has knocked the stuffing out of her today. Mens K1 U18 was very competitive and due to the last minute change of rules a couple of the top paddlers who had 50'd in the semis got back into the final - judging was a bit inconsistent at times but no doubt they are all volunteers just like NZ and we were grateful for the opportunity to race. The day and the venue were great and the hotel management looked after us very well.

our medal winners getting organised for the ceremony

Haylee, silver U18w K1

Haylee, silver medal

Dan and Luke, bronze medal, C1 U16

Dan and Luke

Patrick, Finn and Matthew reclaiming the New Zealand flag

Medal winners , Dan, Luke, Haylee and Eve Van Horn from USA

Kristoff(sp?) Polaczyk, Lukasz father, with Finn, Dale and Wendy, 

 Our old friend Lukasz Polaczyk arrived at the course with his dad, to cheer the kiwis on and thank goodness they did because as we were packing the trailer to leave we discovered the frame of it had broken in a very serious place and we couldn't go anywhere with it as it was. The Polaczyk team swung into action and took the trailer away (very slowly) to a friend close by who according to Lukasz was 95 years old and had two heart attacks while he welded the thing back together for us .... meanwhile we had loaded half the boats into the backs of the huge vans ... just in case we needed to leave the trailer behind.

exhausted, waiting for the trailer to be fixed, no dinner for the sickies

 As the day wore on and the kids drooped, we started to have some issues with feeling unwell, sore tummies followed by the vomit  .... they were real troopers and kept competing - by the time we left we had 4 with sick bowls in the black van - thank heavens they all slept almost the entire 3 hour journey to Liptovsky Mikalus - we arrived very late, the U23 were already tucked up and sleeping and we are sorry we woke most of them up as we found our rooms in the most amazingly haphazard Hansel and Gretel renovated barn with stairs which keep going up, twisting and turning and getting narrower and narrower leading into cubbyhole rooms tucked in under the eves - kids off to bed all completely exhausted so day off tomorrow - went up to our room to write the blog - no internet, jumped into the shower, no hot water .... all in all a day of two halves and ups and downs ... and one more sick kid.

first days racing in Krakow

The day dawned a little cooler and overcast and when the kids got down to the course they discovered that the huge storm we had last night had deposited a huge amount of rain into the river upstream and it had changed the course considerably. The water had risen, with the bottom two judging platforms actually in the water and the gates dragging in the dirty muddy brown water. You would have needed to have been in a submarine to get under the finish line ..... race start was delayed while officals hurriedly raised all the poles and built new judging platforms. The course had changed and in the kids heads it didnt look or act the same as the night before during demos - in actual fact the water was pushier and more challenging as was evidenced by the numbers of 50's and penalties incurred in the heats.
It was definitely a struggle to get a clean run and negotiating the staggers slowed down most of the paddlers.
Click on the link below for the full set of results.
Results

Pavel, giving the girls pointers in the middle of the course

Patrick tucking into the snacks, Wendy collecting the race times and Agnieszka  visiting

An added distraction for the day was an unexpected water surge of at least 40cm which raced its way down the course overflowing the sides and leaving all the judges and spectators standing ankle deep in the brown water. Still don't know what caused it but it took at least 10 minutes for the level to return to normal adding another delay to the whole race schedule.

Martins friend Barbara arrived today with her father, and some special cakes she had baked for the kids - poppy seed cake - Makovec - and another a bit like a baked cheesecake slice. They enjoyed tucking into this treat after team meeting this evening. Tomorrow morning everyone needs to be packed up before breakfast although we will still be here for the full day in competition - hopefully through to the end of the finals.  Tomorrows semi finals begin at 9am with C1M U23, C1MU18, C1MU16: then, K1WU18 at 9.38: then C2mU16 at 10.23: then  K1MU18 at 10.39: then  K1MU16 at 10.53..... followed by finals at 2pm in the order of C1M: K1W: C2M; K1M: C1W

Presuming we have paddlers in the finals and maybe even on the podium we will have dinner here before we leave on the 3 hour trip back across the border to Liptovsky Mikulas and joining the U23 for the next 14 days.

trying to break into Auschwitz is harder than you think .....

Another beautiful day this morning - loaded up into the vans and away from the course by 8am heading for a visit to Auschwitz - kids all keen on this plan even though we knew our time there would be a bit limited because we needed to be back here by 12noon for lunch and the training session at 2 pm.
Martin once again had the route completely sussed and we flew along the roads being overtaken by dare devil polish drivers who display no fear on double lines .... bicycles and tractors and little motorbikes with enormous riders all travelling in the middle of the road makes for an interesting time.
Arrived at the first camp and looked through the quarantine barracks where hundreds of people were kept ... the fields of standing brick chimneys were the only remains of hundreds more buildings which had been destroyed by the Germans in an attempt to get rid of their evidence.

 We moved on from this first camp to the big main camp where the majority of the extermination took place. However trying to get into the camp and museum was very difficult - it seemed that after 10am in the morning groups of more than 10 people would only be admitted with a guide but individual people could go through for free prior to this time - we knew this and timed our arrival for 9.45 - unfortunately when we got to the front of the line the young man asked how many we were and Pavel said "16" at which he said well you cant come in unless you have a guided tour which meant we had to wait for the group to build to 30 people and was very expensive and 3 hours long and we only had 1 and a half hours to spend there. So we said we are individuals and its before 10am - he still refused to budge and Pavel asked him if he was an individual could he go through - he said yes so Pavel pushed past , Wendy and two kids followed and there began the drama of the others trying to come in - it didn't help that there was another group of 5 Australians also trying to get in and the guy thought they were in our group as well. However one by one the kids peeled off and attached themselves to others coming through and in dribs and drabs we all made it INTO Auschwitz except Dale and Haylee and Jess who couldn't seem to blend in with the crowd. Dale spent a long time trying to explain that we weren't a tour group from another company but just common old kayakers here for only 2 hours and wanting to experience a little of what was beyond the barbed wire .... those of us who made it in were overwhelmed by the displays and surroundings .....
Back into the vans and back for lunch followed by the last training session before tomorrows racing begins - and then the storm broke - thunder, lightening and torrents of rain and power cuts. Pavel and Martin braved the rain to continue to coach through it all.

Tommy

Robin

Marcus

Jess

Patrick

Callum

Finn

Dan and Luke nailing the drop

Dan and Luke

lining up in the eddy

Pavel sheltering from the rain in a judges booth talking with Marcus

After training the rain continued and the kids really needed a snack because tea was to be a little later this evening after demos. Wendy set up the two trusty fry pans out on the terrace of the first floor and cooked up toasted sandwiches for them all - it was a bit dodgy with the thunder and lightening and the electrical cords lying in the puddles were a worry - 

make shift kitchen 

Luke protects the second helpings

 

kids eating toasted sammies in the hallway 

New Zealand uniform looking good at demo runs

Tea time in the hotel