NIKOLA GIRKE - Sailing

This morning I woke up to heavy rain, sometimes hail - funny cause "it's never like this" in Perth in December. Considering it was the hottest day on record a few days ago, and then it's hailing...it's become a bit of a running joke amongst us sailors (but it's not a funny joke) that the normal weather patterns never hold up for race time. The norm here in Fremantle is that "The Fremantle Doctor" blows constistently between noon and 3pm, a cooling afternoon sea breeze which occurs during the summer months in SW coastal areas of western Australia. In all our training time leading up to the Worlds, we had these great "usual" conditions, however, that's all changed. The Doctor has yet to come, I think he's drowned in all the rain. I'm pretty sure that Perth has a new rainfall record from today.

Thunder and lightning kept us onshore all day, and at 2pm the race organizers called off the day. Too dangerous. Lightning was hitting things in our boat park!!!

I came home to check out the weather and news...only to learn that: Storm-ravaged parts of the city have been declared natural disaster zones.

With racing cancelled today, we lost the opportunity to race 2 races. Tomorrow they have 3 races scheduled (which is the most they can do on a given day - provided that we windsurfers have at least 1 of the 1st 2 races in planing conditions). With only 6 races in the opening series scheduled, now having been dwindled down to a maximum of 5, it's quite important for me to have 3 super solid races tomorrow.

Bring it!

Nikola

SARAH BOUDENS - Canoe/Kayak

Canada Cleans Up and US Thanksgiving Race!

The Canadian Whitewater Slalom Team has been training super hard in Charlotte, North Carolina at the US National Whitewater Center.  This site will be hosting our 2012 Olympic Team Selection races in April of 2012 alongside the US Team Selections.  Our Olympic Team will be determined after 4 runs over two days with the best 3 of 4 counting.  It’s going to be intense!!

This training camp was a great opportunity to get in some quality time on the course in Charlotte.  It’s big and pushy and makes for some exciting racing.  Our training camp concluded with a two day race that was very well attended by us Canadians of course but also included the entire US National Team.

Canada won every class we entered!  It was even a clean sweep in the Men’s Kayak class with five time Olympian David Ford taking the win, closely follow by Ben Hayward of Edmonton and rounding out the podium was John Hastings of Ottawa in third.

The C2 Men’s class was won by the Cutts brothers, Jamie and Adam, of Ottawa while Alexandra Mcgee also of Ottawa placed first in the C1 Women’s class.

I’m also happy to report that I won the K1 Women’s class followed in second by top US paddler, Caroline Queen, and in third place was newcomer to the Canadian Team, Thea Froehlich of Ottawa.

It was a very successful training camp followed by an even more successful race.  It’s a good sign of things to come for next year leading into the Games.  Go Canada!

Sarah