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Mainpeak Newsletter
Robin Bell Olympic Bronze 12/08/08
The venue was brilliant. It had a 12 thousand person capacity grandstand which was right on the white water.
Most people could see 90% of the course. The actual whitewater is the toughest in the world. They have written
China in foot high concrete on the bottom which sends the water in random directions creating a massive challenge.
The international canoeing body ICF had appealed to the Chinese officials to change it, there was no love.
The ICF set the course so we new it was going to be a relative easy gate setup on the hard variable water, they had
no option. With only 1 wave surf in the final coach Ben and I was hoping for a little more use of the features. The
water proved to be so hard and variable, mixed in some Olympic pressure the big mistakes started flowing. 3 medal
potential athletes missed the semi final in both the mens and ladies kayak.
The first big fatality in C1 was Tony Estanguet, the 2000 & 2004 Olympic Gold medalist knocked out after the semifinals.
I was positioned 5th after a 2 second penalty knocked me from 2nd going into the finals. It was always going to be hard
to push for gold from 5th. I knew the minor medals were achievable with a good performance.
I had a good run, I was hit by the 'stir-fry' wave and dropped a bit of speed, other than that I was really happy.
Dave Florence from GB followed me down and went into the lead by just under 2 seconds. He was killing me both runs
from gates 6 to 9, I tried to pull some back but struggled all week through this section. I had him on all the other splits.
Sitting at the finish was similar to Athens for me, my fate was in other racers hands, somewhere I don't like to be.
I was in 2nd with 3 boats to go. Polish, Czech and Slovakia. I thought I would take the Polish, but was unsure of the
Czech and knew the Slovakian was good. I watched the Polish guy loop around for gate 15, and Jezek the Czech a good mate
of mine came unstuck on the cross from 3 to 4. Michal Martikan from Slovakia was awesome. He put down 2 fast runs that won
him his 2nd Olympic Gold to go with his 2 Olympic Silvers, dating back to Atlanta, impressive.
Cheers
Rob
Robin Bell World Cup Final - Gold 07/07/08
Hi All,
I am in Singapore airport after a manic weekend of racing. It was the World Cup final and Australia's best performance in Canoe Slalom. The C2 and mens kayak raced Saturday. My young training partner Will Forsythe took a huge step by making the finals. He was in 4th place after the semi finals, and after a touch was still poised enough to finish in 7th. A massive step up, and a building block for the future.
The C1s and ladies kayak were on Sunday. My flight home to Sydney left at 2200 from Frankfurt 4 hours from the course. I had qualified in 4th place and was able to watch a few of the early paddlers race to confirm my choice in lines. There was a tricky combination between gates 1,2 and 3. Kynan Maley was off in mid pack and without getting the benefit of watching some racers struggled around these gates finishing in 21st. I took a conservative line at the top losing about 1.5 seconds off the fastest each run, but made up the time and more by being aggressive through the middle and bottom. I even managed to pull off a technical move I invented on the Swan Canoe Club gates in the late 90's. I led by 1.5 seconds going into the final and managed to increase the lead by a fraction.
By winning the World Cup final I also won the series. I am extremely happy with this, as going into the season my goal was to medal in 2 out of the 3 world cups. Winning the last World Cup is a great way to go into the Olympics.
I know what it takes to medal and the Olympics is what I am after this year. I have 3 weeks of training in Sydney before I fly to Beijing.
After the race, I had to load up my boat and headed straight for the airport. While I was on the road, Kate Lawrence won her first World Cup. This is her first medal and hopefully not her last. The junior Australian team arrived on Saturday and sang the national anthem for her at prize giving. I wish I had been there. Well done Kate!
Cheers,
Rob.
Robin Bell World Cup 1 Prague - Silver 22/06/08
Hi All,
The Aussies had a good race for the first world cup here in Prague, Czech Republic. We had 3 boats in the final, C2, Kynan Maley and myself. The course was technical which suited the likes of Kynan and myself in C1. The course designers managed to use every feature on the river, surfing every wave which made it enjoyable.
Racing in Prague is tough. Results are very tight here with a touch being the difference for a final berth. Warwick Draper the Olympic kayak was a victim of this circumstance, finishing in 17th.
I meandered through qualification cautious of my oblique abdominal muscle on a few of the waves. I ended up in 7th with a few touches.
Video review showed I had the pace around the gates, it was just a question whether or not my oblique would hold up for a extended period of time.
The semi final was a hard race. I raced off the start and had an awesome top and middle section, heading into gate 16 I let the boat slide and lost a second. I managed to hold it to the finish but Tony Estanguet went into the lead by a second. I was a little annoyed about letting it slide near the finish, but I was sucking in the oxygen more than I usually do. I think the 3 weeks of sitting on the rehab couch in Sydney was catching up to me.
The final was a show down. I ran the boat a little more conservatively on the top and really knuckled down on the bottom. This payed off with a slightly faster 2nd run, but it was not fast enough to overcome Tony.
Dave Florence from Briton was third with a good race.
Overall it is a very good start to the world cups, which are a building block for the Olympics. My oblique seems to be healing well, pulled up a little tight from the racing, I am hoping to be in full training by next weekend.
We are leaving for Slovenia this afternoon, the site of the 2nd world cup.
Have a good one.
Rob.
Robin Bell Olympic Update 12/06/08
I went to Beijing for 10 days of work on the Slalom course from the 5th of May. This is an valuable time to get experience on the Olympic course. The course is very unique and difficult and so there will be some home course advantage. Thankfully the Chinese C1s are still off the pace, give it another few years and they will be in the mix. The Chinese have restricted access for foreigners so it is important to get there in these accessible times. The training was brutal, rough water, at one stage I remember being upside down bobbing up and down on top of a tyre unable to roll. But never fear that was the worst of it. I did manage to get confident on moves down the big drop in all directions. The coaching staff and other team members left me for the last 2 days of training and my trip to the USA.
I ventured to Charlotte, North Carolina for nearly 3 weeks of training. Charlotte has a new course designed by an old training mate of mine Scott Shipley. And yes he is an American cowboy, the course boasts 2 channels around 1.6km of paddling and twice as much gradient as Sydney. The AIS sent Ben Patrick a lawyer and old training partner from Melbourne for support. We worked well together allowing for a hard white water slalom session each morning followed by a fitness session in the afternoon. The fitness sessions included boxing, running sprints and mountain biking. There were 19kms of fantastic mountain bike trails around the white water venue.
Robin Bell
Robin Bell on his Olympic Selection
Selection is over for another international season and Olympics Games for the Australian Canoe Slalom Team. Slalom in Australia is small but there is plenty of talent coming through, especially in C1 and ladies K1.
I was lucky enough to secure my Olympic spot on fridays race. Kynan Maley who came 2nd behind me, had a fantastic final run but fortunately I had built up enough of a lead in the first run to take the win and the Olympic boat. The C2 of Lochie Milne and Mark Bellofiore also qualified on friday. I stayed out in Penrith friday night for the final race on saturday morning.
Selection was over for myself and the C2 but the other classes were still up for grabs, with 2 different winners over the previous 2 races. The ladies race was over after the 1st run, with Kate Lawrence showing great form and taking a commanding lead. This meant there were 3 different winners over the 3 races. Kate's sister Jacqui won the first race and in the event of a points tie the results were split on this race. Jacqui will be going to her first Olympics, knocking out her favored competitors Kate and Louise Natoli.
As predicted men's kayak came down between Anthony Brown and Warwick Draper. Anthony was in the lead until a crucial error 3 gates from the finish line, he lost 2 seconds and ended up losing by 0.4 second.
A mistake that he will never forget. It will be Warwick's second Olympics.
The Olympic boats head to Beijing on the 7th of April for a camp. I have to decide by tomorrow which races to attend in the lead up to the games.
Cheers
Rob
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