Last night in Hungary!!!

Excitement is the number one emotion right now!!! The time has come and tomorrow we off to the OLYMPIC GAMES!!! Can you believe its real cause im really battling to realise it! We fly at 09h55 via Turkey Dubai and on to Beijing, so its a long trip but no worries because we on our way!

We spent a great weekend at Lake Balaton, Hungarys version of the sea and we were unprepared for how awesome it was! It felt like we were in a whole new country, I guess going to Szolnok is like going to Blikkiesfontein and thinking thats what SA is like!!!! But the lake is beautiful, turquoise blue, over 80 kms long and quite shallow. theres a lot of development around the lake and as its summer holidays here there was a real party atmosphere. We went for a great run up the very small mountain! and got some beautiful views over the lake. We also spent a lot of time wollowing in the “sea” and doing tourist things. So the K4 is ready to race!

 

The next time i write will be from the olympic village Beijing China! Cant wait!

Training is over, its racing time!

Today is a huge milestone for us, it is our last night in Szolnok, Hungary. After a 3 week camp here the four of us are leaving tomorrow for a weekend break at Lake Balaton, Hungarys version of the KZN south coast! After 3 weeks of pushing to the max each day its time to rest up and recover for the big race. We did some race practise today and things are on track with some encouraging times. Our waiting is over, four years of training is now going to take effect to have us 100% ready for racing at the Olympics. We spend Monday night in Budapest at Csepel Canoe Club where we spent 5 weeks between racing world cups through June. From there we fly out for the last time from the Feryhegy airport on route to Beijing. We fly via Istanbul, Dubai to Beijing, arriving on Wednesday Im sure rather tired and jet lagged. But very exciting is the fact that we get to move directly into the village. The rest of team SA is currently in a holding camp in south Korea and they only get to move into the village 4 days before they race. Due to our equipment demands and the need for a 1000m course to train on we are the lucky ones who get to experience both the opening and closing ceremonys. I must say after months of waiting it was suddently weeks away and now all of a sudden we have just days to go! What seemed so abstract and unreal for so long is now building up inside with all sorts of emotions attached! Im keen to race, excited to see how I can do and nervous as all hell! Bring it on!

Hello to you!

I guess this blog is long overdue, I know many of you have asked me to put together something you can follow. So here it is Jens updates on the route to Beijing. Its a work in progress so please be patient!

 

Thanks for the visit