SILVER!!!

Silver medal performance today! It was a tough race, not the result we were wanting but a great result nonetheless!

It has been an incredible year of personal learning and personal victories; mentally, physically and spiritually. I wouldn't have been able to do this without the ongoing love and support from family and friends and most importantly from God. He gets all the glory!

Now I have 3 weeks vacation and some quality R & R with the family and friends in Victoria!

Cheers! Go Canada!

It's GO time

Tomorrow is the day! 1:48pm the light turns green and we blast off the start line! All the blood, sweat and tears come down to 2000m and roughly 6 minutes. I've learned a lot this past year and have so many family and friends to thank for all the support and love that has helped me through. Alright, enough with the sappiness. Let's GO!

www.worldrowing.com

This is the online video feed link where you can watch the racing. 1:48 local time, 7:48am Ontario; 5:48am Alberta, and 4:48am Victoria! See you at the finish line!

Won the heat!

We won our heat and posted the exact same time as the Americans who won the other heat (6:20.96). Sundays final is going to be a great show down! We now have 3 days to prepare for the final and fine tune our technique and rhythm.

An update on our Canadian team. Our women's team has 5 boats in the A final and one B final. This is fantastic for our program and country. Winter training pays off! On the men's side, they have one boat in the A final, one boat in the B final and 3 boats in the C final. The competition is very stiff here and it's no easy feat racing against any country. You can't be sure of the result until you cross the finish line.

Thank you for all your support for our country and team! It means a lot to us!

Weather delay

Our race today was cancelled due to weather conditions which caused unfair lane advantages. We were about to put our boat in the water when the officials came and told us to put our boat back and that racing was cancelled. That news definitely changes how your mind works. I was pumped on adrenaline and ready to race, but then we couldn't and I kind of had an emotional break down. It was weird because I was getting emotional over the dumbest stuff. Nonetheless, I have recovered and am ready to bring the heat tomorrow (no pun intended)! We will be racing our heat tomorrow at 1:53pm local time. (7:53am Ontario, 5:53am Calgary, 4:53am Victoria). First boat across the line goes directly to the A final on Sunday.

Racing results will be on www.worldrowing.com and you can follow the live-tracker as we race down the course. Go Canada!

First race tomorrow!

The maple leaf is on the blade! Ready to race! I am very excited and honoured to represent Canada tomorrow in our heat. Preparations are complete, we are ready and fired up! We are racing against; Russia, France, Romania and Australia. The first boat across the line will go directly to the final on Sunday! Race time is 5:21pm local time. (11:21am Ontario, 9:21am Alberta, 8:21am Victoria)

Unfortunately races are not on live video feed but you can follow a live-tracker that will give updates via places and times during the race. Here is the link: http://www.worldrowing.com/ Click on the live-tracker and look for the W8+.

Thank you for your support! Go Canada!

Arrived in Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam a couple days ago and have settled nicely into our hotel and got right into preparations. Our mode of transportation to and from the course is by bicycle. I really enjoy biking to the course as I feel like a local, but we certainly don't look like locals as we have to wear helmets. We get a lot of strange looks!

Rowing Canada has a tradition that World Championships is one of the few events in which the blades will have a maple leaf on them. (Other times the blades are just red and white without the maple leaf.) Last night we received the stickers that we put on our blades. Now I just have to wait for a time when it's not raining to put them on.

World Championship are around the corner!

We arrived safely in Italy a few days ago and went straight to work and back into training. We are staying and training in the safe place as we did when we were here a month ago. It makes it easy to adjust to a routine quickly as it is a familiar place, our home away from home in Europe. Next Wednesday we will be flying to Amsterdam and preparing for our first race. Racing begins on Sunday the 24th but our heat is on Tuesday the 26th with reps on the 28th and the final on the 31st. There are 11 crews in our event which is more than other years. It's great for women's rowing as it means there are more women in our sport!

World Rowing has put together a great article about the event with some random fact tidbits.
http://www.worldrowing.com/news/large-entry-for-2014-world-rowing-championships-amsterdam

Happy Rowing!

World Championships

It's official! I'm going to the World Championships in Amsterdam to compete against the world in the Womens 8+! We are leaving August 11th to train in Italy for a week and then we travel to Amsterdam to race and put our year of training to the test. I'm very excited to represent my country along with my teammates! I'm also very excited to be able to see my parents in the stands! Thanks for making the trip Mom and Dad! I love you!

http://www.rowingcanada.org/news-events/news/2014-rowing-canada-aviron-senior-national-team-announced