Season underway in Adelaide

By Jim on Monday, May 3, 2010 - Related Tags:- dream, Kelly

My season officially kicked off on December 11 at Australian Canoeing’s GP1 Regatta at West Lakes in Adelaide.

Due to work commitments our squad travelled down late on the Thursday afternoon to begin the three days of competition first thing Friday morning. After a lovely business class flight from Sydney to Adelaide we were greeted by weather that could best be described as ‘fresh’.

Day one of competition saw all 1000m events contested and I am not going to lie to you this distance doesn’t really float my boat when it comes to enjoyment levels. The open women’s division had two heats line up and after getting out of the blocks well the overall race was around about 500m to long and I failed to progress through to the final. Despite not making the final I was happy to get the first race of the season out of the way and blow out a few cobwebs.

Now it was time to focus on the K4 500m race later in the day. Having attending an two week AIS training camp a week earlier in Queensland our K4 crew of Bernadette Wallace, Hailey McGinty, Julia Tyrell and myself were all looking forward to this race after some great sessions at the camp. For those who haven’t paddled in team boats some days you click and some days you don’t and unfortunately for the four us we experienced one of the latter. Despite our hardest efforts we struggled to get our boat up and running the way we knew we could and we finished second to the other AIS crew by half a boat length – still not a bad effort for a crew who had only paddled together a handful of times.

Before we knew it Saturday rolled around and with it came the 500m events and a jam-packed day of racing. We kicked off with heats of the open women’s K1 500m, followed by semi finals and finals. Having not raced to many 500m events in the past I was not quiet sure what to expect in this event but after a good talk with my coach, Jimmy Walker, we devised a game plan that required me to back myself more over the second half of the race with the aim of making the B Final.

I qualified for the B final and drew lane eight on the far side of the course, I knew if I was to be a chance in this race I would have to have a good start and maintain my boat run through the middle of the race with a strong kick home. Before I knew it we were underway and at the 150m mark I was right in it, coming into the last 200m I did as I was told and backed myself and as I did my technique went out the door. If I was going to finish well I was going to have to do it in an ugly manner. I put my head down and pulled as much water as I could and crossed the line with the lead group, unsure of my exact place – as the results were announced I was delighted to hear I had finished third with a personal best time. I was very pleased with my race and the result but have come away from it with one thing and one thing only in mind – A Finals are what count!

After the K1 final I lined up for the K2 500m with team mate and training partner Julia Tyrell, we qualified for the final after a wobbly semi and finished 5th behind some seasoned campaigners – not a bad result but again one that we will be looking to improve on before the next regatta. Last, but certainly not least, on the program was the second round of the K4 500m. This time round the crews were rotated to get everyone paddling with different crews and out of their comfort zones. I was teamed with Julia and two South Australian girls who certainly hold their own. We jumped on the water and paddled to the starting line to be told we were on. With no time for a proper warm up or practice run through we headed to the line with nothing to lose and a lot to gain and finished third.
Sunday it was time for my type of racing the 200m events. The women began the day with K2 200m heats and finals and despite been the first time we had ever raced this distance Julia and I surprised ourselves and qualified 4th fastest for the final. Nothing is as important as your start in a 200m event and we knew we had to get out of the blocks quick or we would risk been left behind. We had a bolter of a start and were right in the mix for a podium finish – with 50m to go Julia made the call and again we opted for ugly paddling to get us across the line and finished in 3rd place – a result we were totally stoked with but again want to improve on.

Unfortunately for me the K2 200m final was to be my last race for the regatta after I aggravated an existing neck injury and was forced to withdraw from the K1 200m events and I can reassure you that sitting on the bank watching others race is not a place I like to be.

Overall I finished with a mixed bag from GP1 with some good and some bad races, but what I have walked away with is the knowledge that 'a lot' more work needs to be done before GP2 and Nationals in early 2010 and after a post-regatta rest day and some serious physio on my neck - I am now back to training and working on improving on my results from GP1.