The first of three World cup stations was held in the glorious canoe/kayak city Szeged in Hungary. My goal for the World cup series was an A-Final qualification over 1000m. I knew from past years, that this is maybe possible on the last one, because I build my shape with these competitions. The concurrence in Szeged was not bad, some good guys quitted after Olympics and some other guys start their international season on the second World cup but most of the Who is who in paddling was there.
The competition started last Friday with the heat in K1 1000m. The windy course made it not easy to paddle, but I usually like headwind and paddled with a deeper frequency than normally to place 2. It was the result that I expect from the heat, Australian Olympic Champion from 2008 Ken Wallace made his victory without discussion and I qualified clearly to the Semis. My Semifinal looked in one way easily, because no big name was in. But in another way there were five favorites on a same level. Hungarian Tamas Szalai, Czech Lukas Trefil, Slovenian Jost Zakrajsek, New Zealand former Olympic medalist Ben Fouhy and me. I knew everything was possible, but I need a perfect race. I started quite good the Czech and Hungarian next to me were in front but only for one boat. I like when the others are leading the race and I am in striking distance. The headwind from the morning was even harder in the afternoon and I felt my arms burning 250m before finish. Again I said long stroke, nice technique and more pressure. 200m before the finish lane I was in second place only the Czech in front of me. I started my finish sprint and got closer and closer to the Czech. 100m to go and I felt the Hungarian was making a move and I had problems to increase pressure and stroke rate. In the finish I looked the first time for my opponents and saw the Hungarian was a half boat in front of me. The other three guys were nearly on one line with me. I did not know am I second or am I fifth, no one knew at this time… Whatever I said I don’t wait now for a result, I go to cool down and look when I’m back. It was sure my best 1000m race in this year. Maybe not enough power in the finish but what I did before was really good. I wanted to go out and already saw my coach Ingolf waiting for me. I saw he showed something with his hands. First I thought he means it was a good race. Then he screamed: second place, and showed the number two with his hand. I was happy in this moment but I knew with bad luck, I would be in a C-Final. But now I’m in an A-Final over the Olympic distance. I just was thankful and how my former training partner Jernej Zupancic said: The luck is going to those who earn it and work harder than others!
The day was not over, after this race the 500m qualification started. I paddled in the K2 category with my winter training partner and club mate Stefan Domeisen. I did not care for what will be on Saturday and gave my best with Stefan. The heat was not bad but under my expectations. We went to Semifinal by time and we both were not very optimistic for that race. But we said we want to give our best and when we do this we have no reason to be disappointed. The semifinal was clearly better than the heat and with a super finish sprint we overtook a lot of boats around us. We looked at the finish lane and were fifth. A really good race in our first international competition. Which meant the qualification for the B-Final on Sunday.
Now I focused on my 1000m final on Saturday. I woke up did my morning run and was happy to have such race waiting on me. I saw B-Finalists going already to the bus, when I was going for breakfast. That’s a good feeling, no doubt. I warmed up on the water and felt tiredness but I feel that always in the warm up so I did not care. Then I went for my race, without being more nervous than usual, I knew I had nothing to lose. I just did not want to be last. Then I was paddling up to the 1000m start and realized the crowd of Hungarian fans. What a feeling but don’t care and do your own thing like you always do… I did my own thing but this was on that day nothing really good. I never had the pressure and power from the Semifinal. And when I wanted to start my finish there were so many big waves from the other paddlers, that I had to care not to fall in. I finished 8th and lost definitely too much to the dominant winner Max Hoff. It was a hard lesson, but I learned a lot and want to show what I learned as soon as possible!
I liked to have a bit time to relax until the next race. I slept really well and ate a lot. The B-Final over 500m in the K2 was my only race on Sunday. I still felt the tiredness from the days before. Probably a sign that I’m not used to the race speed yet. Our goal was again showing a good race and hopefully beat some boats. We did a good race, but with some tiredness in the Start and Finish. The 6th place was the result and that means totally Place 15. That’s a satisfying result for us. Stefan will now focus on the K2 with the other U23 paddler Andri Summermatter and I will compete the other world cups only in K1. Next weekend it goes to Racice in Czech Republic and the first Weekend in June I will compete in Poznan Poland. My goal for these two races is again reaching at least one A-Final. There I want to show what I am able to do with a good race. But I know it needs again luck and some very good racing to come in, so I fight for my luck like I’m used to do.
