Julho 5, 2009
Holland Beker and Henley
Well we have now been in Europe for three weeks and already I am competing in my third regatta.
After the teams success in Munich there was a great feeling in the team and everyone was straight back into knuckling down to make sure we continue or results throughout the season. I stayed with the team in Munich until Friday before heading off to Amsterdam for the Holland Beker.
This was the 5th time I have been to the Holland Beker regatta in the last 6 years, it has not been my most successful regatta with a win in the four in 2004 and last years win in the single being my only success. It is always a good fun regatta to go to. While there is usually a lot of top scullers at this regatta unfortunately this year there were only a couple of good scullers with the USA sculler and Dutch sculler in attendance (both from the B final in Munich). There were only 11 entries meaning a top two finish in the heat would take you straight through to the final. The heat went well I got out in front from about the 300M marker then was able to ease back in the second half to win comfortably and take the fastest time of the day. As expected the USA and Dutch sculler made it straight through from the other heat.
The rest of the day I spent relaxing and enjoying some sunshine, after the hot sunny start we had in Munich we then had 8 days of straight rain with top temperatures of about 12 degrees. So the sun and warm temperatures were much appreciated. On Sunday I was up early for a paddle and home for a snooze before heading back to the Bosbann for the final. It ended up being a pretty hot race, I was always in front but the Dutch sculler pushed me hard for the first 1000M, the US sculler was also in contention. I took control in the 3rd 500M to move clear by about 4seconds by the 1500M. I kept it on right to the finish as the two behind me started to race each other for silver. I took the win by 6.5sec in a time of 6:50 was pretty happy with my scull making it a great start to the season and nice to know I could back Munich’s result up. I was rewarded with a drug test followed by a catch up with all the friends I have met from the Nederland’s over the years of rowing, was a fun evening.
Monday and it was once again on a plane and this time off to the UK for the Henley Royal Regatta. We arrived and set ourselves up in Maidenhead before having a look around and getting some dinner. We spent the first half of the week training at Eton which is the 2012 Olympic course. Some of us have raced there before, I have already won a world title and set a world best time so it is quite a special course for me and hopefully continues that way for the next four years. We have also spent time scouting out accommodation and eateries as we are likely to stay around Maidenhead during the Olympics as the Olympic village will be too far away from the course.
The week went well and seems like everything is continuing to go in the right direction. Thursday the first half of the team moved to Henley and we started racing. The men’s pair, Duncan Grant and myself all started racing. Both The men’s pair and myself had fairly straight forward wins while Duncan faced last years champion. He had a fine race to win by a few lengths which in the eyes of the UK media was a huge upset, not sure they realise Duncan is the current lightweight world champion and very quick sculler.
Friday the rest of the team arrived from Eton and was another good day. All the crews won through to the semi finals except for Duncan who faced Tim Meyens (4th at Olympics), being a good team mate Duncan Pushed Tim all the way loosing by about 2 lengths and hopefully tiring Tim out for me, as I face him in the semis today.
Today we have a very busy day of racing with some very good match ups, its great to be back at Henley with all its uniqueness. All the first timers are enjoying it and I will be back with a more in depth report in the next few days.
Mahe
