Link to Junior Pre-World Championship Information & Photos
Junior Team European Tour 2005
Blogs from Augsburg by Kurt Braunlich and Davey Hearn
photos by Jennifer & Davey Hearn
Tuesday June 21~
After a long day of traveling, we are all here, and have now done 2 workouts at the course. We have been staying on the easier side channels so far, but will be getting on the race course for the first time this afternoon. So far, no problems other than spilling some drinks this morning at breakfast... The waitress was good humored, but after dealing with us for a week, she may not be so friendly. Anyway, just checking in to let you all know that we are all doing well. We're still working off jet lag, but we managed to stay up until 10 last night, so we are doing well. I will try to keep in touch and let you all know the stories as they develop... Kurt
Wednesday, June 22~
This morning we had intensive practice on the top of the course at Washing Machine with one group and on the lower half of the course with another group. This session went well since we are starting to be acclimated to the new time zone and the rec boaters were not out in force yet. Yesterday we trained on the course for the first time in the late afternoon and experienced many slalom boaters and some playboaters to dodge at times as well.
Everyone is doing well, all equipment is intact save one video cam damaged by security inspection of checked baggage on the plane trip. this afternoon we will do a full length workout on the back channel for fitness and quality work on easy water, and we expect no interference. Davey
Thursday, June 23~
Locals tell us we are quite fortunate to have such nice weather (it has been
hot and sunny every day so far) as they were wearing sweaters last week. We
had good training on fulls on easy fast moving water yesterday and today we
have the morning off to rest before another session on the main race course;
1/4 sections for time. John won the session with 3 clean runs and Garen was
close, being a bit faster but with a touch. Jure got up to speed on his 3rd
and 4th runs and with a couple of touches was 3rd. Benn was close behind Jure
by less than a second, leading the C1s, and Chad and Nick battled for 2nd with
Chad prevailing due to much improved 3rd and 4th runs, both clean, while Nick
was a few seconds quicker but incurred a few touches. Molly led the
women with two consistent and quick runs and Ashley edged out Paris with the
difference being penalty errors.
The K1s and Women did a team run to warm down. All agreed that this was hard work but necessary for speed practice for the water in Solkan. This Wasserwerke channel is flat but fast moving, making for difficult offset combinations and some upstream gates in current. Physical work and good practice moving the boat. Davey
Saturday, June 25~
We have had 3 more sessions on the race course since I wrote last. Everyone has had intensive work on the top and bottom parts of the course. We worked at speed yesterday afternoon with a pyramid on the easy water canal of earlier full length workout notoriety. All were pretty dedicated to this work, after a run in one another's boats, we got down to business and the athletes gave all they had while maintaining their pace and form throughout.
Got up early today to beat the playboat rush and set a full length course with coach Michal and the Canadian group. Jure and Benn put down some decent runs while others sparkled in places while struggling in some places as well. The week of hard training on the heels of our flight has left the athletes with their energy tanks a bit low. We plan to rest today with perhaps some O2 work this afternoon, watch video of the last two workouts, and prepare for the drive to Bratislava tomorrow.
After eating Czech/Italian for the first couple
of dinners, we have now sampled the Bavarian cooking at several establishments
in Friedberg, resulting in full bellies and making the 4 block walk back to
the hotel much appreciated. German language skills are improving for
all, with menu terms and etiquette fast-tracked. Jet lag should be gone for
good by tomorrow. Davey
Wednesday, June 29~
The
Junior Team has now mastered the big water in Bratislava... Well, not exactly,
but at times they did do quite well here and they all had tons of fun with the
big stuff. The Hochschorners and Juraj Mincik appeared yesterday just back
from the
European Championships (I read a two page spread in the Slovak
sports paper at the pizzeria Monday night so I knew a bit of the results, but
it was all in Slovak, so...) Today three C2s were training in the Hoksi group
and all were quite impressive. We are working at consistency on the difficult
water, so it was neat to see such a display of prowess. The bottom drop has
got to be one of if not THE biggest drop on any artificial course in the
world.
We did Grand Prix training on offsets Monday, and technique on the upper and
lower sections of the course with C1s and Jure in one group with Davey, and
Garen and the K1Ws in another group with Kurt.
Each session has included some flatwater work to warm up and build speed with
sprints. We did Team practice on Monday as well, trying out various orders in
each class. A few have had sore throats and earaches at times, causing some
missed workouts so as to recuperate, but overall we are doing ok. We rest and
tour the city this afternoon and evening. Travel day to Solkan is tomorrow,
with possibly a stop in Austria for exercise or sightseeing.
Davey
4th of July ~
I am sitting here in the public library here in Solkan with the rest of the team. Things are going well. The team is recovering from some hard training in Augsburg and Bratislava, and we are now tapering to be in top condition for the race this weekend. The athletes are starting to get the feel for the course and are already starting to paddle well. I'm excited to see what they will be capable of when they are feeling their best. The course here is beautiful, the weather is great, the water is clean, and I, for one, am loving it here in Solkan. Yesterday we stopped by Jure's Grandmother's house and pillaged her garden... We ate our fill of fresh apricots, apples, carrots, strawberries and raspberries... and then pushed on towards a great dinner at the youth hostel. The hostel, so far, has worked out well. It is a bit of a hike from the course, but the rooms are nice, the food is good, and the people are friendly. Kurt
Friday, July 8~
We had an excellent practice this morning after heavy rain and thunder woke us up to close our windows for quiet at 5 am. The timing of the storm matched the one that greeted us in early morning exactly one week ago just after we arrived here. This time, although the rain lasted just an hour or two in Solkan, more rain was still falling upstream near Bovec. The race level is supplied by dams upstream which hold the water back for part of the day and release more water at night. Due to the storm today, the there is a lot of water coming down from upstream. Practice today was held at a slightly higher water level than the expected race level, and we did broken runs in thirds, with each athlete getting 3 to 4 runs in during the 45 minutes allotted. Athletes are ready to race, and we expected demo runs at 6 pm today, but we just got word that there is too much water coming which cannot be held back, so demo runs will be tomorrow, probably at noon, with the qualifier starting at 1 pm. Sunday semis and final should be on a normal schedule, but it all depends on what happens upstream, since more rain is forecast for tomorrow and Sunday... Davey
Link to Junior Pre-World Championship Information & Solkan Photos
