Another great weekend is behind me. At the international Regatta of Rapperswil which was joined by four Nations (Switzerland, Greece, Germany and Malta) especially the German clubs and my club Rapperswil won the most medals. At the moment I try to focus me to the Marathon Worlds in Rome in three weeks. So I didn’t know what to expect at this regatta, especially the program was including no 1000m. The 5000m race at the end was a very nice but hard alternative.
On Saturday the qualifications for 500m and the team boat races for 200m took place. It was raining all day but at least we had no motorboats on the lake and nearly perfect conditions all day! The 200m final in the double kayak with Stefan Domeisen was a solid race, we finished 3rd behind two German boats. It was our first time to paddle over short distances. We are both absolutely no 200m paddlers and absolutely happy to be on the podium. After that, the K4 200m was the next final were our boat Rapperswil was paddling in a totally new constellation. We had some problems with the high frequencies, but were able to make sure the 2nd place behind Friedrichshafen. The night sprint on Saturday was a great ambiance, all the paddlers had so much fun there. Also me as a 1000m guy was just happy to sit in the boat and race over this short 100m. KC Friedrichshafen were dominating this event with the first four places!
Sunday morning started with the highlight of the weekend maybe. The K1 500m final, which had quite a good level with three heats! Sure I belonged to the favourites, but the 4th and 7th from the German Championships two weeks ago completed the small circle of favourites. After a traditionally bad start, I managed to overtake some boats until the half. The leader of all during the race was Martin Schubert. 200m before the finish line we were at the same line, then he started a finish sprint. Instinctive I waited because I felt not so much power for a long finish. 100m to go and I started to increase my frequency, Schubert was a half boat in front. Centimetre to centimetre I came closer. On the finish line I was not sure but finally I won with 26 hundreds in front. It was one of these races that I would like to see, because it was so exciting. After that the K2 with Stefan was my next race. It was running really good and we were closer to the German boat that we expected. We both had a really good feeling at our first full 500m race and sure we can optimise some things in the future. Also the K4 500m after a short break was good. Again we had a new constellation with Matthias Krähenbühl, Fabian Reck behind Me and Stefan. We lost to the German boat at the start and the finish sprint. But at the lower frequency between we dominated over all other boats. Unfortunately it was not enough to win. In the finish sprint we lost our victory. Sure with some team-boat training it would be possible to win and not get 2nd.
In the K1 200m I made easily the final and finished 4th. Again the sprinters from Friedrichshafen made a triple victory, but I was happy to be the fastest Swiss. I never was this before over 200m and I try to repeat this next weekend at the Swiss Championships but there will be much more concurrence! Just 40 minutes after that race I was standing totally tired at the start line for the last and hardest race the 5000m. There were 20 boats in the seniors category starting together but a lot of good guys were missing. So I tried to make a clear lonely victory. One German was on the wave from my boat until 1500m then I made a sprint and he was not anymore able to follow. The last 3500m I had my lonely race in the front and was able to increase my advantage to the chaser group. A good training for the Marathon Worlds sure and I was so happy to come over the finish line. After all this races I was absolutely tired, but also happy with the good results. The weather on Sunday was much better, there was some wind and little waves but finally all the races were totally fair for everybody!
Like I said next weekend will be the Swiss Championships. I have six titles to defend and hope to reach that goal!
Results:
K2 200m 1st KS Friedrichshafen 34.49, 2nd KS Friedrichshafen 2 35.25, 3rd KC Rapperswil-Jona (Wyss/Domeisen) 36.14
K4 200m 1st KS Friedrichshafen 33.73, 2nd KC Rapperswil-Jona (Wyss/Domeisen,Ruoss/Reck) 35.54, 3rd KC Schaffhausen 36.39
K1 500m 1st Fabio Wyss 1:44.50, 2nd Martin Schubert 1:44.76, 3rd Jürgen Schüle 1:46.52
K2 500m 1st KS Friedrichshafen 1:38.00, 2nd KC Rapperswil-Jona (Wyss/Domeisen) 1:39.21, 3rd Hochrhein Paddler 1:42.22
K4 500m 1st KS Friedrichshafen 1:30.13, 2nd KC Rapperswil-Jona (Wyss/Domeisen/Krähenbühl/Reck) 1:30.79, 3rd KC Schaffhausen 1:35.47
K1 200m 1st Niklas Böhme 36.33, 2nd Jürgen Schüle 36.63, 3rd Martin Schubert 37.06, 4th Fabio Wyss 38.11
K1 5000m 1st Fabio Wyss 20:34.52, 2nd Thomas Buch 21:21.55, 3rd Christos Nikolauo 21:24.63
