Australian Open

The Aus Open rolled around pretty quickly as I arrived in Sydney on Tuesday night and raced Friday morning. I was immediately very happy to be back on this calibre of white water and settle in for a great three weeks of training with the Australian Open and Oceania champs taking place on the first and last weekends.

The Australian Open is not a major race for me, although the start list was of world cup standard with so many international Canoe slalom paddlers being over here. I was just excited to get back on the start line and feel the personal pressure of executing the course to plan. Qualifications went okay for me, I safely paddled into the semifinals in 12th position. Semifinals were early the next morning and I woke to quickly look at the course before racing. There were no demo runs and with no coach, it was up to me to pick the right lines. Unfortunately I did not execute my run to plan and touching two gates, I was out of the final. Not to worry, this is a great practice race for gauging my training and some improvement points, all gearing toward London. I am looking forward to the next two weeks of training and also sitting in the start pool again at the Oceania Champs.

I am staying with a friend in homebush with his apartment being in the old athlete village from the Sydney Olympics. I wake up to a view over the Olympic Stadium every morning. Primo.

New Zealand Herald: Meeting the White Water Challenge

By David Leggat

Full Article here

Official Olympic Selection

Today I received the news that I have been officially selected into the NZ Olympic team to compete in the London2012 games. Its hard to describe the feeling following this call but I am sure you can imagine it entailed emotions of relief, excitement and an immense sense of achievement. It has been a lot of hard work and this has been a major goal for me for a long time. Obviously it is only the first step and my eyes are officially locked on an ultimate performance in London with everything (mind and body) coming together on the day.

I did not get here alone and I am super grateful to everyone who has got my back. The key players (you know who you are) and my major sponsor Waiariki Institute of Technology (and the Waiariki Academy of Sport).


Ka Kite Ono

Luuka

2nd NZ Open

A great NZ Open Race at our top international slalom course in Mangahao drew to an end yesterday with some exciting racing in the finals. I safely made it through to the semifinal and went hard out in the final, wanting badly to take the win. I felt fast and strong but a few critical errors and two gate touches put me back and I finished in 2nd position (108.87 + 4), 1second behind Czech paddler Karolina Galuskova (107.48 +4) with Ella Nicholas in 3rd (116.11 +2). Mike Kurt took the men's race, defending last years title with Fabian Doerfler from Germany in 2nd and John Hastings from Canada in 3rd.
Thanks to John Snook and all the race organisers for a great event.
This I will be attending my Waiariki Graduation Ceremony before heading to Australia to race the Australian Open and Oceania Championships.

Here is a NZ HERALD article about the race Swiss wins New Zealand Open

Mangahao

Sportzhub Article

Photo: Lani Hepi www.lanihepi.co.nz

Driving down to Mangahao today we were met by a friendly breath test to ensure driver Louise Jull had not been on the beers at 11am on a Wednesday morning. After the all clear, we were given the option of free icecream or coffee by NZ Police and Mihi Cafe to encourage drivers to take a break on long journeys. We were happy to take up the offer and following this pleasant refreshment we carried on to Mangahao for a great afternoon training session.
The NZ Open is this weekend and it is a race I always look forward to. There is always something special about racing on your home turf and Mangahao is New Zealand's top slalom course. It will surely be a great event and I am happy so many international paddlers will be over to compete.
Thank you to the Julls for their hospitality, I absolutely love staying here.

NZ Selections 1 & 2

Mike Dawson hitting it

A good weekend of racing and for me a good bit of race training and trialling a few things.

Day one was okay, I posted the fastest run time overall but hit too many gates so finished second behind Czech Paddler Carolina Galuskova. Mike Dawson finished 4th in the international K1mens field (1st kiwi overall) with Mike Kurt of Switzerland showing some good form.

Day two was another good race and I finished first, just in front of Carolina of Galuskova and had a bit more fire in the muscles, although it wasnt a perfect run. Mike Kurt of SUI won again and Mike Dawson was third and first Kiwi overall.

Day 1 results here

I am looking forward to training and racing on Mangahao next weekend.

Latest Update

I am sitting at the bunkhouse in Penrith, currently summoning the minerals for this morning's hard flat water session. Its been an epic week of training here and I have only 5 sessions to go before I fly out tomorrow afternoon. My arms are definitely feeling it and I am combatting the fatigue that seems to be taking over.

Having already met Olympic qualification at the worlds nearly 4 months ago, this year is totally different to the previous 3, where I have had the stress of selection races in late January which forced a few lighter training weeks to ensure my spot on the team. This year however, I am pre selected and able to keep the training volume high through these crucial months. I will be racing the upcoming Kawerau and Mangahao (NZ Open) races but not in any sort of fresh form - although I will certainly be out to give it my all. It will be good to hit the start line again with my last race being the British Open in October last year.


Check out these photos of Penrith taken by Ciaran Hearteau. Awesome!!

Penrith

Yesterday I woke up at 3.30am to catch my flight from Auckland to Sydney for a week of training on the Sydney Olympic course in Penrith. Things got off to a shaky start when to my disappointment, Virgin Australia left my kayak in Auckland. How you forget to load a 3.5m kayak onto an aircraft is beyond me as it is not exactly inconspicuous. Well, its not good to dwell on these things and I made my way to Penrith, borrowed a kayak and paddles managing to get onto the white water for my scheduled training that afternoon. Two sessions down I am loving it. It is good being in the mix again with so many people over here training and the quality of the course and training venue.
I am hoping (perhaps praying) that my boat will be delivered this afternoon and all will be good again.

Check out my latest Olympic blog post as well as all the other athlete ambassadors. I love reading their blogs and there is so much going on in the world of NZ sport.

I am back to NZ next week to race the NZ Open in Mangahao and the NZ selection race in Kawerau.

I hope everybody had a great Christmas and that the New Year has started well.

Luuka