Fabio Wyss

More than one month ago, I was racing World Championships in Duisburg. It was a race with a lot of emotions before and after the race. After a surprising win in my Heat, I was in a really good positions for Semi-Final. But I knew before, that a Semi-Final is another game than the Heat. From start on I had a good pressure, but Polish Rafal Rosolski and Slovak Peter Gelle set me under pressure. They were about one boat in front of me during all the race. I had a lot of power for a finish and gave absolutely everything. I came closer to Rosolski, but also he was able to increase his speed. Finally he crossed the finish line half a second ahead of me. I was third and hoped to reach final maybe with the fastest looser time. Bulgarian Miroslav Kirchev took this place, also half a second faster than me. Normally I would search this half a second which refused me not to go into A-Final. But on that day I was absolutely sure, that I was not able to paddle faster. So I tried to focus me on the B-Final. Later that day and on the next day, I felt a little sick. My coach and I decided not to paddle the 500m.

The 1000m B-Final on Saturday was a solid race, but I felt quite powerless. I was not able to make a really good finish sprint. Anyway I am confident with this third place in the B-Final. Only Marko Tomicevic and Anders Gustafsson beat me in there. After that, I looked forward to the last race at the World Champs, the 5000m. I started to race 5000m international this year. It is big fun and I am never so nervous like before a 5000m start. The reason is everything can happen. I normally try to beware me from crashes with other contenders. But this time I was unlucky. After my first stroke somebody hit my paddle and I nearly felt in the water. After this little intermezzo the field was already gone and I started behind the mass of 37 paddlers. I thought about giving up, but I decided to go und try everything. I was overtaking a lot of paddlers and finally fought until place 11. I am happy with this result. It seems that my physics are okay, when I can make this result with that terrible start 🙂

If you want to improve Swiss German you can watch the Duisburg Blog from my friend Michael:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ecsBDqACrg&feature=c4-overview&list=UUC8pufmn2m-Of5cA23JEiRw

If you want to watch the full B-Final and the full 5000m I have also links:

B-Final: http://eurovision.digotel.com/icf/index.html?video_id=12549
5000m: http://splink.tv/kanu/wm-duisburg-2013-finale-k1-5-000m-maenner

Results:   

K1 1000m

1. Max Hoff (GER) 3:44.210

2. Ken Wallace (AUS) 3:44.652

3. Bence Dombvari (HUN) 3:44.680

Ferner: 3. im B-Final und somit Gesamt 12. Fabio Wyss 3:37.032

K1 5000m

1. Ken Wallace (AUS) 19:44.052

2. Daniel Dal-Bo (ARG) 19:46.138

3. Edward Rutherford (GBR) 19:47.275

11. Fabio Wyss 20:36.220

A long time without racing and a even longer without blogging is behind me. After the three Worldcups I was doing a lot of basic training again. I spend some time in training camps and feel very well prepared for my first World Championships in the Single Kayak. The race course in Duisburg is one of my favourites. The Canoe World is expecting again a big and very well organised World Championships. Like in 2007, when it was held the last time in Duisburg. At this time I was sitting in front of the TV and watched the action. Things changed, now I am sitting in the kayak and hope to be part of the action in TV.

All the races you can watch over Live-Stream on the official Website www.duisburg2013.de. There you also can find the results. The final races will be shown in TV. The times for the K1 Men races you can find here:

Thursday: 29. August:

08:20 Heat 1 1000m Lane 7

15:40-16:10 Semifinals 1000m

Friday: 30. August

08:05 Heat 2 500m Lane 4

14:15-14:35 Semifinals 500m

Saturday: 31. August

12:00-12:05 1000m B-Final

15:30-15:40 1000m A-Final  Live ZDF

Sunday: 1. September

10:10-10:35 5000m

14:50-14:55 500m B-Final

15:15-15:20 500m A-Final Live ZDF

Training in Rapperswil (Pic by Michi Reber)

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 8^th 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 6^th 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.

Last weekend my first race this year took place in the Italian City Mantova. Our Swiss Team is competing there traditionally and I was there for the 6^th time. So I knew before what to expect and hoped for a place in the Top 5. Italy and Slovenia used this race as a selection for international races and also teams from Poland, Finland and Croatia were competing there. Because it was my first full 1000m this year, I was curious about my racing. On Saturday morning I was kicked out in the 200m heat, so this chapter was finished for this weekend after something less than 40 seconds. Before lunch I was standing on the start for my heat over 1000m. Because there were 9 heats only first 3 and no best times came into Semifinal. I had a strong heat, so it was a good test already. I had a really good pressure on my paddle and was able to let the boat run with a deep frequency. 250m before the finish I was in front of the field. At this moment I was able to control a bit and crossed the finish line with the best time over all heats.

In the semifinal on the afternoon I had a much easier run than in the heat. Originally it was the plan to do a good hard run and fight with my Slovenian training partner Lovro Leban. But after a terrible start and a bad feeling in the first 500m I decide to change the plan and save energy for the final on Sunday. I finished second in this Semi, with a worldjourney behind Lovro. A race to forget and look forward to the final!  I started there on lane 7 next to Jost Zakrajsek from Slovenia. Because I know that he is a fast starter I tried not to let him go too far away. This worked really good, he was mostly time of the race with a half boat length in front of my boat. On the last 200m I started my finish sprint. I had a lot of energy for that and was overtaking Jost. I did not look so much for the other opponents and just focused on my paddling. On the finish lane I saw that I crossed third, one boat behind Maximilian Benassi the Olympian from the Italian team and a half of a boat behind Lovro. With this result I’m really happy for the moment. I was never so close to this guys and it’s my first time on the podium in Mantova.

Next Wednesday I leave Switzerland again, now for the first World Cup in Szeged (HUN). I really like the place there, Szeged is for us paddlers like the Wembley Stadium for the football players. I’m wondering how my K1 1000m runs on Worldcup level. On 500m I try with my Swiss training partner Stefan Domeisen a K2. We already did some national races together but don’t know where we stand in relation to the top guys. We will see and you will be able to read what happened on this website!

Results Mantova K1 Men 1000m

1. Maximilian Benassi (ITA) 3:36.44
2. Lovro Leban (SLO) 3:37.15
3. Fabio Wyss (SUI) 3:37.97

From the last post to this a lot of things happened. Also a lot of time was running in that time, I know. One month ago I finished the army so far. I was really a lot of time in training camps from January until now. Normally two weeks training camp and one week back at the army place. Now I’m the first time for a long time for 7 days at my home. That means training on my wavy lake and in my Spartan gym in the basement of a school. But it also means best food that you can get (my mom’s food), carry for all the stuff that I don’t have time in Camps (writing blogs for example) and meeting friends that I definitely meet too less.

I’m really happy how things running at the moment. In this Winter I was able to make a big step in my paddle technique. It’s hard to measure that, but when my coach is using positive words in Training it really means something. So I trust him and also the fact that I’m sprinting much faster than last year’s is an evidence for a better technique. But to find that out seriously you need 1000m races against concurrence. In two weeks I will have this possibility the first time this year. In Mantova (ITA) will be an international Regatta that I know really well from past years. Also my physics increased a bit over winter. Especially my endurance power is better. But I also weigh a bit more now, so it’s difficult to say if that makes me really faster. After Mantova soon the World cup series starts one of my highlights this year. I will compete the first time in all three stations. In Szeged (HUN) the 10th-12^th May, in Racice (CZE) one week later and from 31^st of May until the 2^nd of June in Poznan (POL). This season I will also compete with some different material, I’m using the new shape from Plastex called Fighter Evo. It’s similar to my last boat, with some adoptions that in my opinion making that to a better boat. Also tests on the water are telling me the same. I also will use a new paddle, I paddle with a size bigger, so I have now an even bigger blade, with which I can produce more pressure. I feel also good with this in trainings, but I know that these are not the things that make a normal paddler to a super paddler. What is really important is what happens in training and with your body and not only the material, this is what I like in our sport among a lot of other things!

The picture you see was made last Friday at the Sports awards from the canton St. Gallen. I won in the category Elite/Amateur for my results last year. I’m really proud of such an award, it’s the first that I got! On the picture you can see Giulia Steingruber an Olympic gymnastics participant in London last summer which won the Award for best professional. Next to me is Jolanda Neff she won the Gold medal in Mountainbike Swiss Championships, European Championships and World Championships all in the U23 category. We were together this winter in the Sports Army so it was fun to see her for one time not in camouflage suit and that stuff 🙂 She won the Newcomer category. On the right of the picture you see Hans-Peter Hagmann president of the Ski Club Gonzen which won the Club category. It was an amazing evening with some good show acts. Through the evening moderated the famous TV-Moderator Jann Billeter. On the stage we did definitely the funniest Interview in my career so far. You will be able to read some stuff here after the first races!

From the 21^st to the 23^rd of September the Marathon World Championship took place in Rome. Because I had a quite short season in Sprint-Racing I decided to do something new and join into the Canoe/Kayak Marathon world. The opening ceremony on Thursday evening was quite impressive. Not the ceremony itself but the way to there. All the athletes, coaches and officials went with 5 busses from the race venue to the centre of Rome. We had police escort so we just drove through all the travel jam. The bus driver was doing a little sightseeing tour so we athletes were able to see the important attractions like the Coliseum, Vatican and much more important places. The ceremony after took place at a beautiful old building.

At the opening ceremony

On Friday I started to my K1 U23 race. I hoped for a top 10 result but a lot of things were much harder than I expected. I started well and tried to catch the wave from Portuguese favourite Fernando Pimenta. But I was pushed out from some other paddlers and was behind the first row of paddlers. I was really not able to come back to the leading group and just tried to paddle a good race into the finish. Finally I ended on place 17, 3 minutes and 42 seconds behind the winner Grant van der Walt from South Africa. It is crazy how fast these guys are running through the land portages, I was really impressed. Sure there was a little disillusion after the race but I can live with defeat, even because I know this was not my main business. I have a lot of respect for this discipline and the paddlers!

One of Six Land-Portages

On Sunday I started with my brother Silvan in the Seniors-Category I knew this race will be even harder than my K1. We started really good but after felt back, back, back and more back. We had really big problems to steer our boat in this waves. But this was not our only problems, the legs of Silvan were sleeping and so he had to keep them special in the boat. We sat not straight in the boat and I got cramps in the legs from this. It was hard to enjoy this race but finally we were not last and survived this marathon. I am proud for my brother because after his cerebral haemorrhage back in 2001 no one thought that he will be able to race at this competitive level. Finally we reached place 25 by 32 boats at the start line. Experiences you have to do when you start the first time in a new discipline.

After this experience my season 2012 is definitely over and I will break my training for two weeks. I already look forward to relax now and only work like a normal human. But I am also motivated to train for some big goals on my favourite 1000m distance after the short break! After these Marathons I miss it so much to paddle only 1000m on a straight line. The results this year, if I do not look at this past weekend, were absolutely great and I wonder how it will go nex year!

Start of the Kayak Doubles

Last weekend the last national race of the season took place. The Swiss-Championships over the short distances took place on the Bodensee at Romanshorn. The Bodensee is one of the biggest lake in middle Europe and as you can imagine it is not one of the calmest. For me that is not such a problem because I am used to waves like this from my homelake and as a actual Wildwater-Swisschampion I should have this skills anyway. All the 1000m races I won, especially the K1 without problems. Sure the most exciting race was the K4, my crew KC Rapperswil-Jona had a big fight against KC Schaffhausen, finally we won with 24 hundreds ahead! After the 1000m we went down to 200m in K1. I was able to control the Heat a bit, something that 45minutes later did not happen. In the final I really started good, but a lot of guys started faster than me,as usual! After 100m I reached a really good speed which I was able to hold. Metres for metres I catched my concurrents, in the last 50m I was ahead of the field and pulled through.

The signs for Sunday looked really good and I just continued my performances. Victory over 500m K1, K2 and 200m K2. The K2 500m and 200m I liked a lot. It was a big pleasure to paddle with Stefan. We have a lot of power on the blade and a stunning stability  in spite of the big waves! Totally I won 7 titles, if you add the two from the 5000m and the two Downriver titles I won 11 Swiss champion titles this season. Slowly it is time to speak of a inflation! After this races David Gubser officialy retired from flatwater racing after 12 years as a professional! I was happy for him that he won his last race, the K4 200m!

K2 with Stefan Domeisen