A Good Day Out

After days of doing nothing, it all caught up with us on Big Saturday. Teams Sprint, Masters Individual and Team Classic were conducted all on the same day on an alternative course following the big rain seen this week. To start off with, Stew, Ben and Dan raced the team sprint, finishing 4th on the first run and ending up 5th on the combined runs (sprint racing is 2 runs added together- consistency and speed are important). This was a best ever team sprint result and very good considering only Dan is a sprint specialist.
The next event was the Masters- the older persons’ race. Andrea was the second fastest woman but crazily missed out on a medal as she was the only person in her age category, despite beating all but one racer in the younger category. This situation must surely be addressed before the next world champs in France in 2 years’ time (hint).
I was up against Robert Knebel in my race: a former world champion and wildwater legend. While currently the Czech coach (the Czechs won both classic and sprint teams race in Mens K1) he is fast enough to train with and occasionally beat the other Czech boys. My other main rivals were Estaban (Spain) who I traded places with in Tasmania last year, Hans Meersman (Holland) with 10 world championship events under his belt and Dejan Testan from Slovenia who I used to trade places with a decade or so ago. The internal dillema here concerned how hard could I go and still put in my best effort in the open mens teams event 90 minutes later? I left the finish line without knowing the final result for the next event after working out I had a 5 second advantage on Robert. I ended up getting my medal from Richard Fox- I still think he's dead cool after 27 years. He still thinks I'm 12.
The classic teams event was close to perfect. Stew led out of the starting gate, and we had a clean start. In teams racing your time is based on the time taken for 3 racers to complete the course. You can help each other by keeping close together and using each others’ waves for assistance; but this being whitewater, being very close together is also a risk. On the 20 minute classic individual course, Ben, Stew and I were 5 seconds apart, so we were very closely matched and our best result was only ever going to be achieved through every member taking their turn and absolutely no mistakes. We swapped places and took our turns exactly as planned and finished 5th, 0.1 seconds in front of the Italians. We also beat the Brits, the Belgians and the Austrians, finishing after the powerhouse nations of Czech, Germany and France and the Slovenians who punch way above their international weight. It was an equal best teams result in Australian World Champs history, and I really think we could not have done better on that course on the day.
It’s the individual sprint tomorrow. We’re all pinning our hopes for a medal on Dan Hall. He’s brilliant on whitewater, is focussed and disciplined and has a wicked turn of speed. We’ll have to wait and see what the day brings, but we’ve already had Australia’s best ever World Wildwater Championships. Expect nothing from me! I’m too slow and as of a quarter past midnight, have a few celebratory wines in me.
Please forgive this wordy and longwinded post, but it has been a big and exciting day with loads to report.
See you all at home, at Hobart College (as opposed to the Hobart (Mt Nelson) campus of the Tasmanian Academy and Polytechnic) or out an about.
Love youse all, Matt

Big Satutday

We've had another day of cancelled racing, as the organisers were hoping for the river to fall. When it started bucketing down at lunchtime we had a strong feeling we were in for a course change.

The new course is about half the time of the old one, with easy but very fast flowing water and a few waves. The waves are rolling rather than slapping, so its quite a nice feeling on the water. Because of the days off the rest of the program is very compressed,
with sprint teams, classic teams and masters on the same day and individual sprint on the final day. We'll be busy, and many athletes will need to consider their priorities: team or individual? Classic or sprint.

Why we aren't paddling today

Why we aren't paddling today

Hmm, racing cancelled, what to do?

Women and C2s annihilate Men!

Yesterday we had the Womens K1 and Mens C2 classic races. It rained a lot overnight, which meant they got a lot more water. You can get a bit of an idea how much bigger it all was from the colour of the water and the fact that the winner, Alke Overbeck of Germany beat all the men (including her brother- she can dine out on that for some time I imagine). The water was quite a lot higher than most of the competitors had ever been on, and I have been hearing stories that the majortiy were somewhere on the spectrum of 'worried' to 'terrified'. For these women and C2s, this will be one of those world championships that becomes legend; they will receive instant respect just because they were there many years from now.

The organisers have got the dams turned on full right now to try and drain them as much as possible, with the hope of holding back the water for the teams race later today. It is a spectacle just to watch this river at this level: It's a dark brown colour and belts along at an incredible pace, carrying quite a lot of large trees down it at the same time. I suspect that these trees, if timed, would post even faster times than yesterday! We'll find out what water level we have to deal with later this morning, but it is likely to be lower than yesterday.

Pics from the top:
-C2 on 'Dark Destroyer'.
-British C2 taking right line on 'Quatre Espanyol' aka 'Woodyard'.
-Japanese competitor taking centre line on above (unconventional, but she was fine).
-Aussie Susie Wharton on her way to 19th- first wildwater world champs!
-Winner Alke Overbeck showing great courage and skill to pull off the left line.

Richard Fox Pics

When I was 12 Richard Fox- four time world slalom champion- was my idol- I carried his boat for him at the 1983 Aussie Champs! Now he's a vice president of the International Canoe Federation, and has taken these great snaps at the finish line. Thanks Richard! I am sure you have inspired countless other paddlers through your actions, words, style and results. Seeing you at the start line the other day reminded me of overcoming my own limitations 27 years ago and a presentation made to a young boy who tried his best. I finished last then, and I'm in 17th place now, and am proud of both results. There's nothing in the world like beating yourself, but as Kenny Loggins sang:'you'll never know what you can do...'

And that guy Loic Vynisale chasing me that I was worried about passing me? I had 28 seconds to spare before the new World Champion crossed the finish line after me. It's a good thing for him he didn't have to pass me.

Little bit tipsy

Had a blinder! After a nervous warm up and a tension packed sit around waiting for the start, I finally got to race. The top half is the trickiest, and in training I have found it easy to 'blow up' that is, to enter the Danger Zone (from which there is no return). This time I controlled myself- measured paddling on the faces of the waves, paddle in the fast current pulling strongly but not quickly- and blow me down it worked! I ended up 17th- 32 seconds after my pursuer (who won) and while not my highest result (I got a 14th 12 years ago) this was probably my closest margin percentage wise. (We're a bit obsessed with percentages).

Only two pics from the warm up run now, but will scavenge around and get more for later...

Results: http://tonimonterde.com/LiveMsportsPro.html
I think the results on that webpage don't include Mariano Bifano at 10th and should read as follows:
Me- 17th
Stew 18th
Ben 20th
Foo 24rd

A very strong showing from Australia. In 1996 I was the best Australian at 24th... the previous worlds our best result was 29th. (I was forty-something- those were the days)

France's Loic Vynisale won the event (chasing down me), with Achim Overbeck second and Necj (unspellable) from Slovenia third. The Czechs look to be the strongest team for the teams event, filling out most of the rest of the top ten- they will be a force to be reckoned with. I reckon I'm the happiest 17th place ever.

It's the girls' turn tomorrow. We'll try to give them some of the same great support they've shown us, but that will be hard as they've set a high standard.

Kenny Loggins

I hope I have infected you all with a Kenny Loggins earworm! Further words of wisdom from this poet 'you never know what you can do until you go as far as you can go'.


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World Champs Day

It's the morning of Big Day #1. This afternoon we will race the individual classic race, which is the main event for Foo, Ben, Stew and to a slightly lesser extent, me. The race is simple. It's a time trial down a 6.8 km section of whitewater. Choose your own path, go as hard as you can, choosing when to be efficient and smooth and when to exert maximum force. It's a race that combines supreme fitness with very high level whitewater skills and exhaustive self knowledge.

As Dan has decided to concentrate on the short and explosive sprint race I am taking his place in the classic event. This means I will be starting fourth last, with a likely medallist one minute after me! If I can hold him off that will be an achievement, as this will mean I have kept the deficit down to around 5%, but it would be illegal and extremely unsportsmanlike to get in his way. We'll see what happens.

I'm particularly fortunate that Dan has given up a spot for me- I originally gave up my classic spot, anticipating a good masters event. It now seems that the masters race has been watered down considerably- it will most likely be on the easiest part of the river, and possibly only 5 and a half minutes long! While the results will be broadly similar, it's not what I have trained and travelled for and asked my family, students and colleagues to make sacrifices for.

I had forgotten what nerves are like. I'm literally primed for action and must struggle to relax so I can apply this energy rather than waste it. I'm excited about the event, I'm excited about getting chased by Loic Vynisale, I'm excited by the prospect of earning a place in possibly the strongest Aussie team ever (teams race Thursday) and I am still very excited about this water. It's a roller coaster ride, with average speeds of around 21km/hr and much faster in some places. It's a challenge to take the best path, let alone judge the right pace. I am reminded of the title of the classic Wildwater racing textbook 'The Danger Zone'. The title refers to lactic acid- you must go hard to go fast, but if you push too far- into the danger zone, you risk building up lactic acid in your forearmes where you lose control and can't apply aerobic power anymore.

Good night readers, when you wake up I'll be sleeping but I'll try to leave you with something to read to start your day.

Race Week

We're in race week now. Here's a bit of an itinerary.
Monday: Boat control, final practise and official opening/parade.

Tuesday: World Championships in classic for Mens K1 and Mens C2. The classic is the longer race- in this case about 19 minutes. I'll be doing this event along with Foo, Ben and Stew. The best 3 in the Australian teams will also get to race the teams event later this week.

Wednesday: Classic race for Womens K1 and Mens C1. Will be cheering on Andrea and Susie.

Thursday: World Championships Team Race. This involves 3 boats racing the whole course. It is possible to help each other but also possible to get in each other's way! Best previous Australian result- 5th in 2008.

Friday: World Masters Championships- classic distance. It seems that the course may be shortened to skip the first third. If I get to race the teams event I'll be thankful for the shorter race.

Saturday: World Team Sprint Champs- 3 boats going ballistic down the tricky sprint course. Great for spectators! I'll be out of this event barring someone else having very bad luck.

Sunday: World Sprint Champs- individual. Dan's pet event. With 3 world cup medals we're hoping Dan can do something special here. I will also be racing the sprint, which in this case is 1 minute 40 of uncoordinated lactic pain. Readers of this blog can expect some expectation management to be applied prior to this event.

Monday: Fly home.

World Champs Warming Up

The town has been putting its face on the last week, with banners everywhere, some wall art and local shops getting into theme. The town has a bit of a witch thing going and one local entrepreneur can be seen combining several themes in the accompanying pic. There's a shop window contest, hedges are being trimmed, roads painted and general tidying up. There are flags for 31 countries lined along the sprint course and the colours look fantastic.

The water has settled down now. It's still exciting, fast and continuous but is definitely more manageable. I've had some good runs down in the last two days, refining race lines and working out where to go hard and where to take care and just make sure that strokes are well placed.

It's the final phase now- a run a day to keep in tune with the water and remember where to go, with a couple of short sharp training sessions so that I don't forget to go hard when I can.

Gettin' Spanked

There are several folk here now, but plenty more to come. With 31 nations expected we currently have Aussies, Brits, some Seppos, Belgians, a Kiwi and a Swiss, so we can expect this little river to get a lot busier in the next few days.

The river was still very high this morning, although a bit lower than yesterday. I have kept off the most exciting bit for the last few days waiting for it to drop, but today my patience ran out (what if it doesn't drop??) so we did a run down the classic. Andrea did a great job down the the very, very continuous first third, but had an unlucky swim in 'Angel Falls'. At this point we were reminded of the power of this river at this height- while she was able to swim to shore after only a few hundred metres, her boat went for at least a couple of kilometres followed, grabbed and bulldozed by Ben Oakley, Foo and myself. We just couldnt't get it to shore! The river is so fast and there are almost no eddies, so it just keeps on going. The damage done is pretty considerable considering this was a brand new boat this morning. It's repairable, but will never be a race boat.

In addition to Aussie carnage, the poms had a big day out. Every British team member here swam today except for Hannah Brown. The culprit has been the great big grabby hole just after the finish of the sprint course. At this height it is evil- you race as hard as you can possibly go for about 100 seconds, and then about one quarter of a second after crossing the finishing beam you drop into the meatiest unavoidable stopper on the course. A stopper is basically a broken wave. This one can stop an 80 kg paddler with 11 kg of boat travelling at 25 km/hr and pull him or her back upstream and regurgitate them in an upside down fashion, which often means a swim at the end of a sprint race where your breath hold ability is not as good as normal. It's fine at normal levels, but we haven't had them lately and are wondering if we will get 'normal' levels at all. At least in the race there will be rescue teams there, and it is after the finish line after all.

Hamish and Gen have gone to Cradle Mountain for a few days, so there will be no Club Penguin for me. I will miss Hamish! Having good communications via Skype and something to do together has made it easier for me, and I hope for him.

Ben and Stew get here tomorrow from Austria so we will have a complete Australian team. It's likely that most of us will do a couple of full length runs in the afternoon, which I'm looking forward to. It's way more fun doing runs with other people around.