Watch this space

Tuesday, September 8th, 2015

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The World Rowing Championships are no longer just around the corner, they have arrived!

I last left off with my crew about to race the final World Cup of the season in Lucerne. We had a good regatta there, winning a strong bronze medal, beating some fast and experienced nations along the way.

Racing in Lucerne brought a close to the summer series of regattas and meant only one thing for us, a hard training camp ahead. We train abroad in various locations in Europe prior to racing the World Champs, firstly we go to Breisach, Germany, then onto Varese, Italy.

Many of my friends think this sounds like a great holiday, but if only that were true. We go away for a number of reasons, mainly to maximize recovery and quality of training, without normal life pressures upon us. It also really focusing the crew, and we can work on the much finer details of rowing our boat.

Germany was a big camp, the last chance for us to make a big improvement on our physiology, and Italy gave us a chance to fine-tune ourselves. The better weather of course helps, and also the odd gelato!

We’re now in Aiguebelette, France and on the cusp of our first race here at the World Champs. However, isn’t just any regatta, we must finish within the top 5 crews in the world in order to qualify our boat for the Olympics in Rio next year. It’s a hard task, but I feel like my crew and I have taken huge steps this summer and shown some real world-class speed.

The cut throat nature of sport means some crews hard work for the past 3 years will be ripped from under them within a few short minutes if they don’t meet the qualification standard. It’s our job now to make sure we pull together, give it everything we’ve got and do ourselves proud.

Watch this space and follow my journey on Twitter.