Kiaora All,

Well this is time I can be a little more up beat in my lyrical waxings. The result of todays final was a much more satisfactory victory though we were made to work pretty hard by an unknown crew from the UK. What is it about pairs and bolters, there always seems to be a crew coming out of the woodwork to surprise the field, ourselves included if you count the Athens Olympics.

The last three weeks have been a pretty intense period of soul searching and effort. We continued to adjust the set up in our new boat with some success, we managed to get some pretty good speeds in our U2 work (aerobic base) and our times in pieces improved. There was still a feeling as though something was holding us back and we made the decision a couple of weeks out from heading to Lucerne that we would use our boat from last years world champs. This was a bit of a risk again as we would only have a couple of days training in a boat quite different from the one we had been in for the last 3 months.

 

I have to say I was feeling pretty bloody nervous as we pushed off for out first outing upon arriving at the Rotsee (The Lake in Lucerne). It was a relief to feel comfortable and the boat feel was alot different through the water. Still we made alot of extra unknowns for ourselves, I guess this is where the art comes in over science, trusting our gut instinct and making the most of it.

 

The heat went pretty well, the draw was a little dissipated from Poznan, none of the big guns were really here only the 3rd placed Germans from Poznan were making an appearance. This meant heat winners on Friday went straight through to the final on Sunday, something I haven't come across in the mens pair events internationally since I started back in 2003. We won the heat pretty comfortably against a couple of crews we'd had to really push to get ahead of in Poznan, so much so that we took the rating down to 34 spm for most of the race and were 29 by the end!!! you may wonder why this is so incredible, well in the past even in comfortable heats we would rate 36 and in the final in Lucerne in 2005 we pretty much came down the track at 40 spm.

 

The bolters from the UK, as mentioned earlier, went 2 seconds faster in their heat winning comfortably over the German crew, definately some food for thought over a very long Saturday spent twiddling the thumbs.

 

Sunday turned on some fantastic rowing conditions, light tail breeze, slightly over cast, keeping some off the heat from earlier in the week. I had plenty of good nerves during the warm up we do a few short bursts to get used our race speed a swear my heart was going to jump out of my throat, but a few deep breaths, some mental 'slaps' around the face and I settled to a more comfortable state, well as comfortable as you can get with a big final in front of you.

 

As for the race itself, the first half of it panned out pretty much how I expected, the Brits pushed out fast and the Germans weren't far behind us. We were always in touch with the Brits though and George set up a pretty good rhythm and we worked passed in the 2nd 500 metres drawing ahead through the 1000 metre, I could see Germany starting to fade and after calling a few pushes I had expected the Brits to do the same, that was not to be however.I don't remember ever feeling particularly paniced by the fact they were coming back at us, I was more annoyed than anything that the Brits obviously hadn't received (or worse ignored) the mental memo I being sending all our opposition through the week that we were going to destroy the field. When we started having to wind up through the last quarter of the race, it didn't all go to plan a few bum strokes on the bouy line with 200 metres to go let them get their noses in front but a bit of faith in our finishing burst meant when I called on George to dig deep and 'really wind it' the boat responded and the Brits broke with about 5 strokes to go.

 

I'll admit I am pretty pleased with the win especially under pressure like that, it would have nice to have one of the other competition there to confirm that the British are as fast as we think they are but it doesn't really change plans for the next phase just provides extra motivation. We had an enjoyable night watching the soccer final at Mr Pick Wicks Hotel in the centre of Lucerne and I tried to have a bicep off with Olaf Tufte, the Olympic Single Champion, I am sad to report that it's back to the beach weights for me if I'm stand a chance against the 'Norwegian Guns' in the future.

 

We are in the Czech Republic at the moment about an hour out of Prague we've just finished 3 days off, which has been great though also makes me wonder about what those devious coaches have planned for us for the next wee while. Facilities here are a little dated but the course is pretty nice and there is a ten pin bowling alley, go figure.

 

Thank you all for your messages and support it is cool to know people are following proceedings back in NZ and definately get picked back up on flat days by reading you messages, so thanks for that. Apologies again for mentioning the heat in Europe at the moment, I know it's the last thing you all want to hear but hey I figure you've earned the right to know our weather conditions.

 

Kakete All,

 

Nathan