European White Water Rafting Championships 2012

So it has arrived! The European Rafting Championships has been in full swing for two days now and all the hard work and training the GB Ladies have been putting in is paying off.  We currently stand 4^th in the overall standings with one event left to go, WE LOVE LIPNO!!

The week started off with a long drive out from the UK, and with no working iTrip or CD player in Fran’s “Pope Mobile” we had to make do with some cassette tapes that Rosie had bought in a charity shop the day before leaving. She managed to find a workout tape that included stretches for your facial muscles – “let your jaw drop and press your tongue to the roof of your mouth” we suggest you try it with a car full of friends around and see if you can drive in a straight line.

On arrival in the Czech town of Lipno the sun was beating down and we were sure we were in for our long awaited summer! Our campsite was situated on the side of the lake and could not have seemed more perfect.

We soon got down to the business at hand and started our training on the course. We practiced our slick slalom, our race faces for the head to head and checking out the Down river section on Devil’s Streams, a feisty bit of white water.

The night before our first race day the sky started to cloud over and we watched an impressive electrical storm slowly make its way towards us. Within half an hour we were all huddled in our tents attempting to sleep whilst the ground beneath us started to resemble a waterbed and our idyllic campsite became a quagmire of doom!! Bleary eyed, and not a little damp we got up to do battle the next day in the Time Trial and Head to Head. We did ourselves proud and finished 5^th overall on the first day.

 

Eager to not be wet 24 hours a day for the whole race we found ourselves an amazing apartment and prepared for day 2…Slalom.

 

The course looked good and our first run once again put us 5^th. Not wanting to settle with that though the girls laid it down and pushed hard to gain a whole place in the slalom and finish 4^th overall on day two. Coach Dave was apparently jumping up and down for joy, and I’m pretty sure I saw a tear in his eye… Nerys celebrated by streaking around the rafts in her proper posh GB bikini!! With it all being streamed live on the interweb, you can tell who is the exhibitionist on the team!

A big well done to the GB 2 Ladies who came 6^th in the Slalom.

Tonight we prepare for our Downriver tomorrow morning. It is going to be an hour of paddling class 4 and 5 whilst racing in a pod of three rafts. We get lane choice in our start but our overall time is what counts. So wish us luck, cheer us on and PLEASE WATCH US LIVE ON www.erc2012.com/article/51/the-first-ever-live-broadcast-of-the-rafting-championship-is-from-the-czech-republic-via-internet/