There is so much to say about my first world championships. Hum, where can I start ...
I left Chicago on the 15 of July to go to Munich and meet up the the USA Jr. National team. At the Munich airport, we met our coaches. We had three coaches, Rafal, our head coach; Aaron Mann, the assistant coach and like a team brother, and Orsha, the 2006 Jr. World champion and also a team sister.
After clearing customs, the team piled in the van and drove 6 hours to Roudnice. When we arrived in Roudnice, we hopped in our boats and paddled for an hour or so. It was fun. Afterwards, we headed to our hotel, unpacked and went to dinner.
The next day we started 2 a day sessions. It took me a little while
to get back into the boating groove. We had a slow first week, with a morning session, followed by lunch and then night session and then dinner.
On the first Sunday, we headed to Prague and paddled the course there and adventured through the city. It was so much fun and I got my sister the coolest gift. While I was in Prague, I spent my time with Caroline Queen and we talked a lot about what it is like to be a member of the Sr. team. It just sounded so cool and I have made making the Sr. team a goal for 2008-2009. It will be really hard but I really want to
be part of that team.
The next week we focused on training and getting ready for the race.
Friday, July 25, was the C1 qualifier. It was the most nerve racking experience of my life. Everything that I had worked for my whole life was sitting in front of me. All my hard work and all of my success and failures did not matter. The qualifier was what was important. Before I left Colorado I set one goal for myself and that was to make the semi-final round. The moment of truth was here.
While in the start, I had an adrenaline rush (and fear) but when I heard the word “go”, I just paddled and did the best I could. I hit 4 gates on my first run and on my second run, I went past a gate and had to go back for it. That cost me some time and although my runs were not great, I made the semi-finals.
I had the next day off and watched the kayaks race in their qualifier. They all did a solid job but only Michal made the semi-finals.
The semi-final race was Sunday morning but I was not as petrified as before. At the start I knew that I just had to go all out. I put together a good run which was faster and cleaner than my previous two runs. Although it wasn’t fast enough to make the finals, I was okay with the end results (I finished 27th overall) and I did my best.
