Olympics on the horizon

A week and a half into 2012 already!

As well as my usual training, I spent most of December anticipating the birth of my niece who was due on the 8th but didn’t arrive until the 21st. My older sister Jacqui and husband Torsten, who both represented Australia at the Beijing Olympics where Jacqui won a silver medal, are now the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl, Lina. 

With Lina’s birth and Christmas, December disappeared quickly. As the weeks and months fly by it is so important to make sure I am getting the most out of every training session so I can be at my absolute best come Olympic selection in February. 

In training I am fine-tuning my technique and mental strategies which are crucial in this dynamic and capricious sport. Meanwhile, the influx of Northern Hemisphere paddlers to Penrith for their ‘winter’ training has begun. Each year during our summer many international paddlers come to Penrith to take advantage of the great training venue and weather. This is fantastic for us because we can watch, train with and race against the best paddlers from all over the world.  Our selection races will be a world class field.

And now it’s 2012 already! In the Australian Canoe Slalom community, early January means National Championships time, and I have recently returned from the Upper Mersey River in Tasmania where the event was held this year. The slalom course is situated amongst dense bush within a Forestry Tasmania reserve. It was great to paddle on a natural river (albeit between two dams) and to take on the challenges that such a venue presents. These include difficulty seeing the entire slalom course due to the dense vegetation and lack of access to one side of the river. We also often contend with bad weather in Tasmania, and the Mersey site is notorious for leeches; fortunately this time neither was a problem!

 In the women’s Kayak event the competition was tight, as it will be in February at the Olympic team selection races. I paddled fast enough but a two second penalty knocked me down from first to fourth place, with just 1.44 seconds separating the top four. In an additional race held for junior team selection purposes I was again fast but a penalty once again cost me the win. This was frustrating, but now I know I’m on track with my speed, and I know what I need to focus on during these final four and a half weeks before our Olympic selection races start!

Happy New Year!