WELCOME!

Welcome to the CAN Fund Athlete Blog!
This is where Canadian Athletes will be posting as they train and prepare to represent Canada on the World Stage! Keep up to date on when and where our athletes are training and competing!

Friday, July 1, 2011

JOHN HASTINGS- Canoe/Kayak


World Cup #1 Recap

So, I finished 8th in the first world cup of the season. I feel a slight sense of vindication making the final here in Tacen, especially after missing the semi at last years World Championships. So am I happy with my result, kind of. Making a World Cup final...it's tough, and I am pumped to have achieved that, but just like everyone else in that final, I kind of wanted more. 

After my semi, I was sitting in eight; however, I knew I had a little left in the tank and could probably go a second or two faster. In the final, I got off to a fast start, but got tied up in the tough gate 4 - 5 combo. I tried making up for the time-loss by cutting lines, but in Tacen where the water ebbs and flows like the stock exchange, this decision worked against me. Needless to say, my time was slower than my semi time and after I picked up a touch at the bottom of the course winning a medal became pretty unlikely. I am positive though, and as my dad always says, there's always another race.
You can check out the finals and the semi-finals at http://video.digotel.com/eurovisionbest/icf/index.html. Scroll over to Canoe Slalom World Cup K1-M Finals and cue up the video to 1:19:00.
Anyways, highlight of the week was meeting a "family friend" of Taylor Swift at the annual Parallel Slalom in the downtown core of Ljubljana. Paul, a huge fan of Taylor, gladly handed over his phone number to this guy as he promised he would deliver it to her, and get her to call him next time she was in Calgary. I was a little more skeptical of this guy and this relationship...so to test him, I requested he get Taylor to simply tweet good luck to the two of us for the race.....yep, that didn't happen....I am not going to say I am a better judge of character as I will admit I will be pretty jealous if she does call Paul....and I want to stay positive for the little guy. 

Anyways, off to France today for World Cup #2. We will be in Southern France in L'Argentiere La Bessee. 

Ciao,
John

No comments:

Post a Comment