Trainingsgroup

Trainingsgroup — 1 Comment
3
Nov 11

Introducing a VIP-Athlete from my training group

It was a long time ago, when I introduced you some athletes from my training group. One I didn’t because I was not sure to find the right words. In the past weeks my friend, twin brother, idol finished his beautiful and succesfull carreer. So now it’s the time to introduce you Big Jernej Župancic Regent from Slovenja!

Zupa at Olympics in Peking 2008

Zupa at Olympics in Peking 2008

Name: Jernej

Surname: Župancic Regent

Nicknames: Župa, Jerry

Date of Birth: 18th May 1980

Nationality: Slovenian

Idols: Spartan King Leonidas ;-)

Website: www.zupancicregent.com very nice homepage with all about the most famous Slovenian Flatwater Paddler. Also a lot of links to other paddlers, federations, equipements, Videos and Župa’s Picasa Album.

About him: When I 2008/09  changed from wildwater to flatwater, I was so happy to train together with such a succesfull, experienced and fast paddler. I knew Župa only from Jantex-Calendars and Television. I had the possibility to train with one of my idols, which is a really rare situation. Jernej started paddling 1991  In this time were not really many Flatwater paddlers in Slovenja and he was training a lot with other countries like Hungary, France, Italy and more. He reached together wich Jaka Jazbec  in the K2 a Worldchampionships Final in 2002 and also a Worldcup Medal in Hazewinkel. After he concentrated himself to K1 and qualified himself for Olympic Games in Athen 2004 where he finished 15th. In the Years after he was able to make a lot of progress. He finished the Europeans  in Rank 6 in the year 2005 and 2006.  2007 he managed the 8th place in the K1 A-Final in on the World Championships in Duisburg and definitly reached absolutly world class level. This result qualified Jernej for Olympic Games in Bejing. He finished there 16th this was not really what he expected, so he changed many things for Olympics 2012. He trained hard with Ingolf Beutel, the same coach like me. Unfortunately he had problems to confirm his success from earlier years. After the Worlds in Szeged this year he decided to finish his career. Surely I’m really sad about this decision he was always the guy I wished the most to see crossing the finish line as first. I’m happy that he can work now as coach in Slovenja. Sure that his knowledge and character will help a lot to young paddlers in Slovenja. Like a lot of former paddlers we can see him still a lot of times in the boat. This sport is too cool to finish totally. On Monday I will visit Zupa in his hometown Most na Soci and do some trainings with him as training partner and coach. I’m looking really forward to and want already say thank you for hosting me.

Župa and me after a race in Mantova

Župa and me after a race in Mantova

Trainingsgroup — No Comments
15
Nov 10

I present: Rok Kuk

Name: Rok

Surname: Kuk

Nickname: Rok Superstar, Captain Kuk, Bridge Boy, Beavies (from the TV-Series)

Date of Birth: 22. August 1990

His Idol: David Guetta (In reality Rok doesn’t like Guetta too much, but everyone knows that Rok loves electronic music so they think he must be a fan of Guetta)

His most spoken sentence: What??? 75 minutes of GA1 sooo long???? (After he checked the Training program and saw that we have to do 75 minutes GA1 like everyday)

Website: www.rokkuk.blog.siol.net In Slovensko and English

About him: He was the first guy in Most na Soci who changed from Wildwater to Flatwater. 2008 he competed on Junior European Championships and showed with an awful Slalom technique a good 15th place over 1000m K1. Coach Ingolf was able to teach him a really nice technique over the Winter 2008/2009. In 2009 he made his first success with Place 6 at the U-23 Europeans with Lovro in the K2. 2010 they achieved two 3rd places in the Worldcups and a Silver medal at the U-23 Europeans. With his young years he belongs to the most successful Slovenian Flatwater Paddlers ever. But this is not a reason for Coach Ingolf to tell Rok every day, that he is less powerful most of the German Youth Girls. This is only one thing, if I want to tell you all the bad things that Ingolf says to Rok, this article would be too long for my homepage… If you search Ingolfs victims in our training group you will see, that Rok has to suffer the most of all! There are girls in Slovenja who say, that Rok is loving himself a lot. I dont know exactly, but I think this is only a myth, if you know Rok Superstar you will see that’s not like he is.

Future: Ingolf says: “There is no future for Rok Kuk!” My opinion is a bit different, Rok showed big success last season and now he does not visit school anymore, so he has much more time for training. So it looks good, that he can achieve same force like German youth girls. And if he is more powerful than last season, he can do even better results. From silver to gold is not a long way!!!

Lovro in Front, Rok in Back at Vichy Worldcup 2010

Trainingsgroup — No Comments
16
Sep 10

Hall of fame: Tim Kolar

It’s been a long time, that I wrote my last article in English. So it is time for introducing another athlete in our training group. It’s the Slovenian Tim Kolar. Enjoy:

Name: Tim Kolar

Nickname: Timmy Holiday, Fatboy, Sprinter

Most used sentence: “Okay and what have I to do?” (After Ingolf told the group to do 90 minutes of GA1 paddling)

Status by the Coach Ingolf: Like me and a lot of other athletes in the group Tim is a victim of bad jokes by our coach. No normal person would call Tim fat or unsporty but Ingolf does. (He also made me to believe that I’m fat :-) But first Ingolf had a total different image of Tim than now. Ingolf always said this guy is very intelligent and civilized, not like the others Slovenians in the group. But Tim showed him that he is at least same balcan like all the others!

Vita: Tim just passed his first season in Flatwater and also in the seniors category. Like a lot of guys here he is coming originally from wildwater racing. He also did Slalom but had the bigger success in Downriver. He was Junior World Champion in 2009. This year he competed U-23 Europeans in K1 over 200m. Tim is maybe the only real genetic sprinter in our group. Ingolf’s Flatwater family hopes to see this young, talented guy also next season in our trainings camps (Especially me, that I’m not the only fat man:-).

Trainingsgroup — 1 Comment
27
Apr 10

Next Athlete: Christian Endl (AUT)

Christian Endl

Next Athlete in our trainings group is Christian Endl (AUT).

Name: Christian

Surname: Endl

Nicknames: Eennnnnnndlllll

Date of Birth: 07.01.1983

Nationality: Austria

Idols: Jernej Zupancic Regent (Because he went more or less alone to the top of the Flatwaterworld. He did his way and earns respect everywhere, he’s a bit Wilhelm Tell of Slovenia.) Second Idol because of his success and kind of winnig: Ronald Rauhe.

His most spoken sentence: Today I try a new paddle

Website: www.christianendl.de (The most spectacular Website of a paddler for years:-)

About him: Christian paddle for a long time in flatwater and was last year the fastest paddler over 500m and 1000m in Austria. The sportstudent is the one of the training group which tests the most paddles. His motto: test is better than trust. Christian is a sprinter but he likes to train hard and long. In our sport this is a rare phenomenon. You can go so far to say, that he is a 1000m Man in a sprinter body.

Future: After some years in K1 he will paddle this year with the German Charles Löhnitz in a double kayak. Charles changed to Austria for this possibility. Two fast and strong guys in one boat, I am wondering how fast they will be. In two weeks they will compete their first Worldcup after a good 6th place over 1000m last weekend in Mantova.

Trainingsgroup — No Comments
18
Apr 10

Introducing the Trainingsgroup

It is now the first time that I write an article in English. I have the idea to introduce our training group and because this is an international group I write in English. I want to do this because I think that this can give the readers a good image behind the name. My goal is to release every week a new paddler. I start with the Slovenian Lovro Leban. So I hope you enjoy.

Name: Lovro

Surname: Leban

Nicknames: Bridge Boy, Butt-Head (from the TV-Series), šarlatan

Nationality: Slovenja

Date of Birth: 21.04.1988

His Idol: Mr. Quagmire

His most spoken word: Giggitygiggitygiggity

About him: Lovro is a student of the University in Ljubljana. He lives in Most na Soci and train together with Jernej Zupancic and Rok Kuk. Before 2009 he was a very successful and talented Slalom and Downriver paddler. In 2008 he reached the Final of the best 10 in the U-23 Slalom Europeans. In the same year he won 2 gold medals on the World Championships in Downriver Sprint. He is the youngest Sprint-World-Champion ever!!! He is still paddling Downriver but his focus is in Flatwater. After 2008 he stopped paddling Slalom. I paddled many races in Downriver against Lovro, normally I was faster in Classic but in Sprints I never had a chance against him. 2009 was his first flatwater season, he paddled in K2 with Rok Kuk and achieved the 6th place over 500m on the U-23 Europeans.

Future: Next weekend he will race the qualifications in Mantova (ITA). He hopes to qualify for the U-23 Europeans and the Seniors Worlds. After very much and hard training in the winter, I think that he can do some very good results this year.