Q and A, or A and Q?

It's a tricky task to answer a question before it's asked, but that's what this blog article will endeavour to do. The question in question is, "Why aren't Mark and Etienne racing the World Cups?". The short answer is that I will be visiting my wife, Georgie, in Nicaragua whilst they are happening. This means that I will be able to continue training at a good level through the rest of the season and fulfil our duties as the Olympic reserve crew. The slightly longer explanation is below:

Throughout March I had really been struggling in training, really struggling. Try as I might I could not find a way to bring the best of myself to our crew. I seemed to lack the critical amount of energy needed to allow me to focus all my effort on my contribution to our team. The consequence of this was that I was not a very good teammate. Short on patience, short on ideas, short of soundness. Our paddling was pretty bad and canoeing wasn't much fun. As well as being generally not very good, I was angry with myself about my behaviour and this was hurting me twice. Of course, Mark bore the brunt of it, and I knew that this dynamic was unsustainable for me and the crew. I can say that I was close to retiring there and then.

Try as I might, I could not find a way to sort myself out. I worked on lots of different ideas and tried lots of methods to get myself back to a place where I could be motivated to put all I could into the crew. None of it seemed to work. Then, one night as I lay awake thinking about this mess, I realised that I had a possible solution, and with it, I came to understand the problem. If I knew that I could take a break in the middle of the season, I thought that it would give me two clear phases to work on. The first phase would consist of the final preparations for the season, and would be focused on the European Championships. The second phase would be focused on training in C2 in London to contribute to the Olympic team's preparations by being a credible and swift crew to spar with. I think the problem was that being away from my wife for such a long time was harder than I thought, and this was coupled in with a season of very uncertain shape and demands.

I spoke to Mark and asked him if he would approve of the plan. Thankfully, he could see where I was coming from and could see the gain in it, even though there would be some costs. Missing the World Cups would be a shame, it means losing the chance to spend more time with my friends and teammates and race in some cool places. But the more I thought of the plan the better I felt. I believe the certainty and structure that it gave me was vital. I was suddenly energised and I found myself able to focus completely on producing a good performance at the Euros. I could also picture how we could train sustainably through the summer and be able to test David & Richard in training during the Rio buildup.

Thankfully, our European Championships campaign was a success (read about it here) and I have been putting my best work into our training. I wish I could be in two places at once, but it is impossible and I am at peace with the choice. I will be away for the three-week duration of the World Cup tour (I hope I can find a decent internet connection to keep an eye on the races), but when I return I will be back down to business. Season 2016 was always going to be a challenge, and it is certainly proving so. But now, thanks to this decision and the support of my team, I feel that we are doing a good job of it, and I intend for that to continue! Thanks for reading.

The 2016 European Championships: a race to be remembered

Where do you start when you want to write about a race like the 2016 European Championships? It is a big deal, the second most important race of the canoe slalom year, apart from the Olympics. But it was more than that. Olympic dreams were realised and shattered. There were underdogs succeeding, big names defeated and new sparks emerging. A large community of C2 athletes raced against each other, possibly for the last time before C2 is dropped from the Olympic programme with probable consequence that most athletes will be 'made redundant' and head to retirement. And Mark and I did our race amongst all this, making our third major international final and finishing in 8th. I will try to paint a small picture of some of the human dramas that occurred, starting with our own.

A proud & happy man at the opening!

For Mark and I, the Euros was our main focus for the season, our one chosen chance to race at our absolute best. We'd done almost three weeks of training in Liptovsky before the race started to develop our technical understanding of the river. We tapered our training to deliver a physiological peak and we worked hard to make sure that our mindset was optimal for the delivery of our best. The course is Liptovsky is fast, narrow and unpredictable, with a tough drop in the middle section that can unravel a run in moments. The courses set for the race were extremely fiddly. Not hard in a 'do or die' sort of way, but in a way that if you took your eye off a gate for just a moment, the water could push you onto a pole for a penalty so easily. It made it hard to get a groove going as you were always looking at the gate and water immediately in front of you, it was difficult to work too far ahead.

In the qualifying round, we came 13th, which was ok. When we arrived to start preparation for the semi-final, we could see that the gates were set quite unforgivingly, and we would have to prepare our tactics very carefully. We watched a lot of C1s and K1s, trying to understand how the water was acting on them, and then inferring how it would affect a heavy, wide and long C2. Our 3rd place in the semi justified many of our choices. For example, we took a late choice (that we had discussed, in advance, the possibility of having to make) just before gate 23 to do a 'peel out', one of the most conservative manoeuvres in the book. By that stage we were out of position, and we had little choice, but it kept us clean and didn't cost too much time. I was elated to make the final - once you're in the final anything can happen!

Skipping through the drop

In the final we had made some revisions to our plan and we were on a good run, until we got out of place in the bottom third. We hit gate 17 and lost time. We were then forced into another peel out at 23, but this time it was too slow, and we lost a bit more. We crossed the line and I knew that we hadn't improved on our semi. But afterwards, watching the video with our coach, Gareth, I was struck by how much we'd put into that run. I often can't really remember what happens in the action, or at least I can't evaluate it. I think my mind is full of the doing (or maybe it is empty with the doing?). But what I saw was two guys doing everything they could to get the boat down the river, adjusting a they went, but charging hard. We nailed a few bits for sure and we hustled a few other sections. I don't know if I could call the time losses 'mistakes'. They were really tough moves and I'd think that we'd need a few more goes at them in training to figure out a consistent, solid solution. I think those time losses occurred towards the upper edge of our technical limit, and we'd done our best to deliver them in the heat of the action - I can't be angry with that. I believe I can say that we put our absolute best into that final run, 8th was the result, but the thrill of giving all that we could give was what was special. I am proud of us, what we did and the way we did it: it was a good day.

Cheerful C1M podium

Kucera/Batik taking air!

As for the dramas, here I go! The GB womens' C1 and K1 team Golds. Hearing the National Anthem and seeing people you know on that top step is always brilliant! ; Alexander Slavkovsky's win in C1M, a huge result for Slovakia's '3rd boat', a real nice guy who has dealt with 'living in the shadow of Martikan' with real grace ; Ander Elosgui (SPA) claiming the final C1 Olympic quota spot in style with an individual Bronze ; Kucera/Batik, again Slovakia's 3rd boat, racing knowing their funding was to be cut after the Euros, winning a major championship after many years on the scene ; Schroeder/Bettge, making their first international final and taking the Bronze ; The Skantar cousins, claiming the Slovak Olympic place ahead of the legendary and illustrious Hochschorner twins. What a journey they have been on! ; Vavra Hradilek, finishing second in K1M by 0.01sec., just a short while after his rival Jiri Prskavec (the eventual European Champion) had secured Czech's Rio place. Both paddlers racing in a style that could only be described as free and wild! ; Mallory Franklin's Bronze in C1W, with Eilidh Gibson crafting a 4th place ; Jana Dukatova just grasping the Slovak Olympic place, taking Bronze ahead of the great Elena Kaliska (4th); and that one to watch, Felix Oschmautz (AUT), who revealed his talent to the world, aged 16, by making the K1M final in 6th place.

And the heartbreaks: Martina Wegman (HOL) flipping in gate 23 when she was on the run of a lifetime, with 8 fingers and one thumb on her ticket to Rio with the last Olympic quota place. My heart sank like I have rarely felt when I saw that happen right in front of me ; Marzo/Perez (SPA) who failed to qualify in C2 in pursuit of the final Olympic quota place, despite having won the Tatra Cup a few weeks before, on the same water and against most of the same crews. They are such a good crew, but road to the Games was unforgiving that day ; Kim Woods, who didn't get through to the semis in defence of her 2015 European title, but who in the following days showed character and flair to find some redemption by racing to two Golds in C1 and K1 team; and Joe Clarke, getting a 50 in the final after a dazzling charge in the semi.

Great Britain's K1W Team at the top of the pile!!

Some of those moments, good and bad, will live in canoe slalom history! But what did you expect? Most of the world's best slalom athletes in the same place, racing to prove their Olympic worthiness or to gain selection, some to prove that even though they weren't going that they were still a force to be reckoned with and some just going out there to do what they have trained all their lives for. Drama was 100%, gold plated guaranteed!!! I was glad to be there and glad to be a part of it!!

Thanks to Michaela Daille for the photos :-)