Junior Team Update from Czech Republic

• previous report here
  

Bright and early Tuesday morning on July 27th, the Junior Men's eight and quad met at the Victoria airport to start a 24 hour trip to Racice, Czech Republic. At the airport to send the team off where the host parents. They have become an integral part of the junior team and on behalf of Rowing Canada, Gavin and I would like to thank these parents for all of their efforts over the last four weeks. Meeting the junior men's team at the airport to wish the athletes good luck was Peter Cookson, Director of High Performance for Rowing Canada. As well, on the plane, was former Olympic silver medalist from the 1960 Olympic Games and former MP for Victoria, David Anderson.

With a stop in Toronto to change planes and meet up with the Junior Women's quad, the team was now complete. The women's quad consists of Renae Barks (Regina Rowing Club), Kayla Wakulich (South Niagara Rowing Club), Marissa Kump (St.Catharines Rowing Club) and Erin Snelgrove (St. Catharines Rowing Club) and coach Phil Marshall (Brockville Rowing Club).

Sitting in the Frankfurt airport, the team got a chance to experience some German cuisine and rub shoulders with a very tall German junior national basketball team. On the plane for the last leg of the plane trips where the final destination is Prague, Czech Republic and where our team leader, Chuck McDiarmid was there to greet us. Also meeting us in Prague was Lindsey Boland, Team manager, Team physiotherapist Ellen Meliesie and Boatman Rudd Pepping.

A one hour bus ride to the town of Racice was the final leg before arriving at the hostel. A brand new facility, the Canadian team were the first to occupy the new digs. Later, the Romanians, Portuguese, Chileans and the Serbians are going to be staying here as well.

Room assignments handed out, the athletes had a few hours to unpack and get used to the surroundings before we left for the course. For 16 of the 17 athletes and two of the coaches, this was our first experience of seeing a World Championship course. Since the boats were held up at the border, we were able to explore and work out the best site to put up the tent. After dinner the boats arrived and we were able to unload and select a set of Canadian oars for each of the crews. Conlin McCabe, hot off his silver medal performance at U23 Worlds, left a message for his cousin Pat O'Shaughnessy-Hunter. Pat read it out to all of the guys. A great motivator to start the next leg in the training for the juniors.

The next three days the three crews went through the process of tweaking the equipment so that it resembled the boats they were training in back home. The first few days there were very few other countries training at the course. The Americans, New Zealanders and Australians seemed to train at the same time as the Canadians so it was great for the Canadian athletes to get a taste of the international flavor of the regatta. On Saturday, the three crews took part in one of the last hard tune up rows when raced 500, 1000, 500 against each other using the gold standards. It was an excellent competitive workout for all three crews.

On Sunday morning the entire team hopped on the bus and headed to Prague to spend a few hours being tourists and getting away from the race course. It was a great day of sightseeing and getting a taste of the Czech culture. Coach Brian Carr took a tour on the history of Communism and went down a nuclear fallout bunker. A group of the kids climbed up to the top of one of the towers to get a better view of the city. Another group of kids ventured in the Museum of Torture. Unfortunately they did not find an ergometer in the museum!

After the brief tourist stop it was back to work. Arriving at the regatta course, the place was much busier than the day before. The Germans, French, Italians and the Russians were now at the venue. Things are starting to get serious. A quick 4 km paddle before dinner and then back to the hostel.

On Monday morning the team has their accreditation booked for 9:00 am. Got to make sure the hair is right for the photo!

The Opening Ceremonies are on Tuesday, final preparations on Wednesday, as well as the draw for the heats. Racing starts for the Canadian crews 10:30-10:54 (five heats) Thursday morning for the men's quad, 1:00 pm or 1:06 pm for the women's quad and 1:24 pm or 1:30 pm for the men's eight. More reporting as the regatta unfolds. See www.worldrowing.com for results.

Men's Junior National Team Victoria Camp

Report by Brian Carr

Seventeen athletes arrived in Victoria on June 28th for the first stage of selection for the junior national team. The Junior A team are preparing for a trip to Racice, Czech Republic to compete in the Junior World Rowing Championships August 4th-8th. The goal of the initial camp was to select an eight and a quad from the group. The first four days the athletes took to the water to develop a common style since there were thirteen different clubs represented with the seventeen athletes.
On Monday, July 5th, the seat racing started and the racing was intense. For the next four days the athletes were put into different combinations to try and find the best combinations for the two boats. In the end thirteen athletes were nominated to represent Canada.
In the quad is Martin Barakso, Brentwood College School, Eric Jackson, Brentwood College School, Tyler Young, St. Johns' Rowing Club and Sash Malowany, Upper Canada College.
In the Men's eight it is Ryan Sanders , Eden High School, Jamie Law-Smith, Montreal Rowing Club/Dawson College, Pat O'Shaughnessy-Hunter, Brockville Rowing Club, Spencer Freeman, Calgary Rowing Club, Coleman Bak, Brockville Rowing Club, Quinten Richardson, Shawnigan Lake School, Steven Marino, St.Georges School, Christopher Marshall, Brockville Rowing Club and Trofym Anderson, South Niagara Rowing Club.
On the weekend of July 10-11, the two crews competed in the British Columbia Championships. This was an excellent chance for the two crews to get to the starting line and race for the first time as crews nominated for the Junior World Rowing Championships.The conditions did not help any of the crews for standard times with a strong cross head wind throughout the weekend. The quad had the opportunity to race against a Victoria City Rowing Club quad that had Mike Braithwaite (2009 bronze medalist from the Under 23 World Championships), Liam Brennan (former Under 23 national team member), Kevin Kowalyk, and Jerry Brown (2010 National Erg Champion). The junior crew, for their first race together, fought well but came up short in the end by six seconds. The junior 8+ raced for time in the heats winning convincingly. In the final they raced against a strong UVIC summer club crew and a tenacious VCRC junior crew preparing for Canadian Henley. In the end, Canada's junior crew won in a time of 5:45, 15 seconds ahead of the crew from UVIC.
On Monday, July 12th, the two crews headed out to Brentwood College School for a four day training camp. On Monday, the team settled into their rooms in Whittall House before heading to the boathouse to rig up boats. After a great barbeque on the new Crooks Hall deck, the crews headed out on the water to check the boats and get a feel for the waters of Mill Bay.
The training schedule is based around the meal times so the first practice in the morning is scheduled for 6:00 am so as to get to breakfast by 8:00 am. Second practice at 10:30, followed by video analysis and then lunch. A rest period for a few hours before heading out for the third practice at 3:30 pm. Dinner at 6:00 pm followed by some team building activities before lights out at 10:00 pm.
On Wednesday morning Gavin broke the good news to the athletes. It is official and these guys are now the Junior National team selected to represent their country at the Junior World Rowing Championships. There was a sense of relief and general excitement amongst the group. After breakfast the two crews got a lesson in rigging boats before heading to lunch. After the break the waters of the Pacific Ocean were too rough to gain any momentum so the crews hopped onto a Brentwood bus and headed down to Victoria to have a session at the Gorge Rowing Club. After practice the guys raced back onto the bus to get to Brentwood for dinner. After dinner the two crews retreated back to the dorm to get together to begin planning out their trip to Racice.
On Thursday morning the two crews took to the water for their last two practices before packing up and heading back to Victoria to train at the National training Center. All the senior crews are back from Europe so it will be exciting to be on the same water, training with them.
The two junior crews have 9 days until they travel to Europe. A great deal of work is still to be done but the general consensus is of hopes and dreams now that they are representing their country at a world championships.
Back in Victoria for the remainder of our time in Canada, the two crews got right back to work. On the Friday morning the 8+ and 4x had a "brush" with the University of Victoria's men's summer club eight. The workout was 2 x 2000 m and 4 x 90 seconds. The university crew was a great match for the Junior Canadians and in the end, the Junior 8+ won five of the six pieces.
On Saturday morning the two crews went to work with the senior national team. The first workout was 4 x 2000 m and the second workout was 6 x 500 m. In the second workout the quad got to race against one of the Canadian lightweight straight fours and the eight paired up with the top heavyweight straight four that contained an Olympic gold medalist (Andrew Byrnes), Olympic silver medalist (Dave Calder), Derek O'Farrell (stroke of this year's men's eight) and Will Crothers (standout member of last year's Under 23 national team). In the last piece of the day, Malcolm Howard (Olympic gold medalist from 2008 and this year's single sculler for Canada) was on the side cheering Canada on. It was great motivation for the 13 athletes to be surrounded with all of these senior athletes.
The schedule is not posted yet for next week however, Gavin and I both hope we will have more opportunities to train with the senior team in our preparation for Racice.
The final week of training on Elk Lake was filled with many different scenarios for the team. Early on in the week, the two crews got to train against each other in a variety of workouts from long steady state pieces to short intense upbeat race simulations.
On Friday, July 22, the two crews met up with the UVIC summer club men's eight for the second time. With the same workout as last week, the juniors were ready to do battle. In the 2 x 2000 m set pieces, the junior eight got out in front and stayed there. The junior quad held their own and made an impression on then UVIC boat in the second piece. In the 4 x 90 second pieces, the junior quad improved dramatically and were competitive on all of the four pieces. The junior eight found more speed and moved away from the crew from UVIC.
After the seniors' second row, the juniors hosted the four athletes that had competed for Canada at the Junior World Championships. Malcolm Howard, Dave Calder, Will Crothers and Rob Gibson shared stories with the juniors about their experiences at the Junior Worlds. Dave Calder brought his first ever Canada jersey and both his Gold and Bronze medals from the 1994 and 1996 Championships. The 2010 junior team enjoyed every minute of their time with these elite athletes and were mentally charged when they went on the water for a tech row after the lunch.
Saturday morning the two junior crews went up against two senior national team eights. Rowing Canada is getting ready to send a lightweight and heavyweight eight to the Canadian Henley Regatta. 4 x 2000 m and then 8 x 500 m, the two junior crews held their own. For the Junior quad the relative boat speeds were not in the junior's favor and they found themselves rowing in the wake of the eights for most of the first practice. In the second practice, the junior quad was able to find more speed when they were racing against Canadian men's lightweight double, starting behind them and learning to row through them. The junior eight spent the day rowing between the lightweight and heavyweight eights. It was very exciting seeing the juniors challenge themselves in different scenarios in the 2000 meter and 500 meter pieces. After the last practice, Andrew Byrnes, Olympic gold medalist from the 2008 Beijing Games spoke highly of the junior eight and the effort they put in during the 500 meter pieces. "Those juniors really made us work to be honest during the sprints."
With slow steady state rowing on Sunday and Monday, the two junior crews are going to be ready for their trip to Racice.
More to come next week when we arrive in the Czech Republic.

Brian Carr
Assistant Men's Coach
Canadian Junior National team