Last weekend were the Downriver Swisschampionships held on the river Reuss near to my hometown. This is the second river that I paddled in my life and when I was 12 years old, I won my first race on it. Because I had time and a lot of desire for paddling some wild water again, I took the opportunity and sat the first time for two years in a Downriverboat again. Compared to my flatwater boat it feels really like a huge tank to sit in such a boat. The short paddle feels like a bamboo cane in my hands. But it needed not so much and I felt quite comfortable again. Especially the three trainings on the lake were faster than what I ever did in such a boat. The two times on the river before the race were definitely more special. I managed not to swim but there were some tricky situations.
For the race I didn’t know so much what to expect, sure I wanted to win, but this I want always… My brother Silvan, who was so kind and gave his training material for my river expeditions, already said after training together that there will not be so many chances to beat me for the others. The first part of the race which was including some wild passages I was not paddling fast, I just controlled a lot. In the flat parts I pushed the speed, but it didn’t feel so good like on a lake. Finally I came to the finish with a best time, but I was not sure, if this was good enough for the national team paddler who started behind me. My brother lost 26 seconds to my time and Martin Scheuber who finished second lost 8.5 seconds.
Team Race Me, Silvan and Al
A bit later I started for the team race. In the team of my home club KC Nidwalden there were paddling my brother and the fastest youth paddler Alistair Smorthit. This team felt really familiar, Al gets his training plan from me and we are neighbours. Al really fought hard and was racing in the team race a time 30 seconds faster than in his single race. How hard he was fighting you can see in his face on the picture. With 37.5 seconds ahead of the second also this decision was absolutely clear, and my short downriver comeback was adorned with two Swiss Champion titles.
The following day there was hold a sprint race. From the distance it is comparable with a 500m on flatwater, so I was more used to this distance than to the 17 minutes long classic race. I won with 4.5 seconds ahead of my brother. In the Sprint team the victory was also going to my Club, now with Urs Zimmermann instead of Al. Finally I can say it was a lot of fun to be back in the downriver family for one weekend and the wild water was giving me more fun than fear, so everything was great!
