This years build up to the World champs is very dependent on gaining race experience at World Cup 1 and 2.

Because we have come to these races for the experience, we had not planned to taper in any form at all. We wanted to stay on our program for peaking at the World Champs.

However, arriving in Europe just under 2 weeks before we raced meant we were not in great form anyway. Jet lag does take its toll and also the extremely cold weather we came to didn’t help either.

So when we raced the first World cup the team was struggling a little to paddle at the higher speed required.

Most other teams were better prepared for racing or had in fact tapered to race well to make further team selection.

Ben Fouhy really struggled in his races and he came away very disappointed with his worst ever results in Sprint racing. Only making it through to the C final was a shock to all of us but also a wake up call to Ben who had not focused at all properly on preparing to race.

The rest of the team battled through and came away with reasonable results.

Steven Ferguson and Mike Walker had two great races to make it through to the final of the K2 1000 meters, and placing 5^th in that final.

A very good result considering there race readiness and the large number of countries, 48, competing at this World Cup in Szeged.

Steve went on the next day to make the a final of the K1 500 meters and finish 7^th. This was a career best for him in the 500 distance.

The girls K4 was nothing less than outstanding for this new crew.

 

Another 2 weeks of training and preparing was always going to help the team step up another level

Unfortunately a flu bug shot through the team and hit Steve the worst.

Cold weather has continued to follow the team. Temperatures of as low as 4 degrees during the day did not help things much.
However the good news is Ben was back in form.

He shot straight through his qualifying rounds and came up with a flyer in the final being just piped by the Canadian Adam Van Keoverden.

A lifetime milestone for Mike Walker followed when he teamed up with Steven Ferguson in the K2 1000m and made it to the podium with a third place. This means we are now playing with the big boys and with lots more up our sleeves.

The girls came out and did an awesome set of races. The K4 came 4^th in the 500 and 3^rd in the 200. The first time NZ girls have ever medaled at a World Cup.

Erin was the first NZ girl to ever make the final of the K1 500 also and came in 6^th followed by a 5^th in the 200.

Our girls were fantastic considering most are new to the sport and coming from a mixed background of surf, whitewater and multisport.

ferg

NZ KAYAK TEAM IN HUNGARY

It's the last day in Racice in the Czech Republic and all is well. The sun is out and we had a particularly nice lunch. Ben who has not been feeling 100% for quite a while finally came good. He did two really fast time trials this morning without even trying hard. The rest of the team have been doing good times and looking forward to Racing. I took some team photos this morning and have attached the best looking one. Most of the team fly to the next destination and the rest of us drive the van with the boats.

We are crossing our fingers in hope that all goes well on the trip and we get all the equipment there. K4 did a time trial over 750 this morning and felt really good. The girls have been on a continual improvement curve. Mike has had a sore back and struggling to recover from a touch of the flu. We have been resting him up a little in hope he will be good to go on Thursday. Steve just continues to get sharper and has found a fantastic turn of speed. Heres hoping he can hold it all together all the way down the course.

Ferg

A 4-00am start in the Czech Republic and the paddlers were off to the airport to fly to Budapest via Frankfurt. The coaches and the 2 female paddlers were taking the van and towing all the boats. We had turns of driving and sleeping but managed to get to Szeged in the south of Hungary just before the paddlers arrived at the train station there. They caught the train from Budapest.

 

Well do the Hungarians take this World champs seriously or what. We got to the course to see a hive of activity. 250 meters of grandstanding was being erected and all sorts of sponsors moving in. You see kayaking is a little different in this country, it is more like what rugby is to New Zealand.

The course is fantastic and as the last couple of days have gone by we can see how serious they are. Yesterday I was watching as the high wires went up for all the cameras. They are going to have cameras above and following the racing down the course .This is in addition to the cameras on tracks at water level that will be following the leaders. So we are going to see unprecedented film footage of the racing.

As for the amount of spectators they are expecting, this is going to be a huge affair.

 

We are all happy with our hotel, as the food is good and beds soft. A big change from where we stayed in the Czech Republic. But we have never seen such big pillows. We all feel like we are in hospital beds when we sit back on them.

 

Down to the business end. All the paddlers are fit and healthy. No illness in camp.

In fact they are at the point where they just want to get on with the business. Ben has recovered well from an earlier flu virus and is very happy with his times in training. They show he is certainly going to be in the hunt for the medals.

The course appears to be reasonably fair and that is all we can ask. So often a head side wind can change results quite drastically. Stevo is going better they ever with some really fast times over 250 meters. Lets hope he can hold it over the full 500 in the singles and then work well with Mike Walker in the 1000 doubles.

 

The young K4 continues to impress me. They seem to have no regard for the bigger and faster teams and are up there in the hunt with the big boys. They could be in the top 15, but who knows with this team, they could do more. The girls team is a new combination and are just starting to find their stride. Heres hoping they can get their speed up in time for racing. We start racing on Thursday morning European time.

 

I am off to a team leaders meeting in an hours time to go over the race draws.

Once this is done we will know for sure the difficulty of the first rounds. I will send an update after the meeting. Weather has finally come good. Maybe too good with an expected high of around 32 C, and going up.

Luckily we did bring some cooling jackets. Jackets that you wear to help keep you cool.

Ferg

Hi All

The draws are looking good for all our teams except the girls K2 500 which is stacked with hotties and they are on the bad side of the course if the wind comes up. Ben's K1 1000 will be a walk in the park for him with no big names to go against. However this means he won't get pushed into a fast time. Steve and Mike are up against the Germans and Russians in the K2 1000. But they seem unfazed by this and keen to put them on notice early on in this regatta. Steve's K1 500 will be a bit more of a battle with Eric Larsen form Norway, Anders Gastafasson of Sweden, and Vadim Pyreev of Belarus, all very fast paddlers of some pedigree. But with his form at present he will be there to knock them around a bit and should easily get through to the semi's.

The Mens K4, our team of young guys, have been thrown to the wolves straight up. I can see a lot of these crew capable of making the finals. So that puts the pressure on us in the first day. We can only hope that youth and enthusiasm will overcome some of the experience in these teams.

The women's K2 1000 has a few strong countries in their heat but they should have no problems going through to the next round.  

Ferg

Hi guys

Ben has done his first race although it wasn't an easy one. There is a good firm head wind coming down the course. Ben's heat was not too hard except for one other good paddler from Slovenia. He wanted to have his moment of glory and try to beat Ben when he should have been saving energy.

Anyway he forced the issue and there was no way Ben would let him win.

If you win your heat you should automatically have a better semi as you only have one other heat winner - lets hope that happens!

However he is acutely aware of the two other hot favourites who also won their heats in slightly better times, but ben was pushed to do a good time in those conditions

Steve and Mike had the German team that won both World Cups this year so they were always going to have a hard time. They were first out of the blocks and held that for the first 100 meters and then the Germans kept working hard past them as they were settling down. The Germans worked their lead slowly up to one boat length but it had turned into a two horse race and the Kiwis knew there was no sense wasting themselves when they were easily through to the next round and they backed off for the last 50 meters. The boys were happy with their result and are looking for an even better next race.

 

The girls were not quite into their best form and really were happy just to get through to the next round. There was no way they were ever going to beat the hot favourites the Hungo's . Theirs really was a strong heat.

 

Now as I write the K4 is racing in a huge heat. The Germans are really killing at the half way position. Yes they made it through in 6th place beating the Czechs, Ukraine and India. Not a bad result from a young team in the worst heat. I would say they will be very pleased. This can still mean the finals are not out of their grasp.

Ferg

Well the day goes on and Steve has just raced his heat and finished 3rd. It turned out he had a hard heat as out of all 8 heats he was 6th fastest qualifier for the semis. So tomorrow will be another day and as it will all be seeded from today we will get some really good racing. I am off to the hotel now so will report in tomorrow

The girls and the 4 will race this afternoon

Ferg

Well another day and a very important one. The weather is overcast but hot with a slight head wind. It's all cut throat today, most races are first 2 through only and the rest are out. It's really harsh.

Ben has just finished a really good race. He was up against Adam van Koeverden from Canada. Adam wins every race if he possibly can and so Ben knew this would be a big show down. Ben wanted the edge over him before the final. Ben had a good start but Adam soon opened up his usual edge of a boat length in the first 250.

However Ben didn't give him anymore and in fact seemed to hold the lead to just under a boat length. Just after half way Ben did the unexpected and started to come back at Adam. Ben has never started his come back until the last 250. By the 250 to go Ben was coming up to even and Adam was fighting as hard as he could, but Ben just kept coming and Adam just couldn't keep the effort going.

The video coverage as they race is fantastic and we could see the effort on Bens face.

I could see there is still more to come yet. Ben kept good technique and won the race in champion style. Now it's all in a good sleep and prepare for his final tomorrow

ferg

Well the K2 were so unlucky. They ended up 3rd in their race with a time that was the fastest of all the losers. Or to put it another way: they were so close but so far away.

They had a great start and moved straight into the lead. By the 200 metre mark they had three quarters of a boat on the next closest boat. They held that constantly all through the race until the last 200 meters. Then the bloody French did a big push  and came through on them to take the lead by a small margin.

I think this made the Kiwis suffer a little and then when the Italians came through with a final blast they couldn't even resist them. They struggled the last 20 meters but couldn't hold their form, and it was all over. They struggled to the pontoon, rolled out of their boat and lay there for quite some time, unable to move because of the pain surging through their veins.

 

Next race up was the girls K2 1000 semi. They were at the back of the field for a lot of the time but managed to roll over the USA before the finish to make it through to the B final.

 

The mens K4 were up against it from the start. They had a hard heat and a huge battle progressed at the front with the stronger nations while we went down most the race in last place. However in the last 250 the boys put the effort in and managed to catch a couple of crews as the line came closer, finally finishing 7th and making it through to the B final. This places them in the top 18 crews in the world.

 

Although making the A final has always been the goal we have still had a pretty solid day and one to be proud of. After all there are over 80 countries competing and we certainly have been at the business end of things.

Steven and the girls have gone back to the hotel to recover for the afternoon session. This may take some time for Steve as he was really hammered after the last race

ferg

Well Steve has just raced (K1 500) and had a shocker at the start. The 1st start he was good but someone had false started. 2nd start he appeared to miss it and was under pressure from the start to catch up. He didn't panic and held a good pace and slowly worked his way up through the race. He managed to get into 3rd place with about 150 to go but couldn't get that last bit.

So third it is, and only half a second off qualifying. He came off the water unhappy but feeling very positive wanting to improve and come back stronger. His form 2 weeks ago suggests he can do much better.

ferg

 

The womens K2 has now finished. Our girls did a good race and managed an 8th place

This is still a good start for this pairing they now know what they have to do to get to the top. That is hard yakker and team work.

 

Just checked the results and both the K2 1000 and K1 500 were the 8th fastest times in the semi's. So unlucky with their draws but they are happier that but for fate they could have made finals. Its always good to figure these things out when you have tried so hard and just come up short

ferg

Well Bens race was a thriller! He got a good start but failed to consolidate it in the first 250

So from back in 7th through most the race he waited, in the second half he started puting the pressure on and then in the last 250 he really let it rip. He came up a couple of lengths and had the race been 5 meters longer he would have won.

Unfortunately lane 9 was the favoured lane and that is where the Swede unexpectedly won from.

 

Steve and Mike also had a great race coming third behind the 2 crews in 8+9. The girls and the 4 were both in lane 1 so that was that. But all are happy and have had some good experience.

ferg

 

Steve had a good battle all the way down the course it was neck and neck. Sweden won in 1.37.6. Steve came in second in 1.37.7. That's very close, well can't get closer really. No wind and no win for the A final either. The A final was won in 1.38

1st and 2nd were in Steves semi Buggar. Steve did a fantastic race.

ferg

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