DUEMSTUFF BLOG

GB senior Selection is over and done. To cut a long story short i had a terrible time and missed the A team finishing in 6th overall. In the last 2 years this has been really frustrating being quick enough to make the team but things just haven’t gone to plan over the 3day series.I’d won 3 out of 4 of the national ranking events and my form was good going into the race but after a silly touch on the last gate in race 1 and then a mistake half way down my semis run in Day 2 my selection hopes were gone. Having had a bit of time to reflect on this i have a list of what i need to work on into next year towards Olympic selection. On the plus side i will be racing the Leipzig world cup and the London test event which i’m really looking forward to as well as 10weeks touring in Europe.

2010 seems to have flown by after a disappoining first half of the year things really ended on a high. After scoring maximum points over the season ( best of 5 races over 9,  5 wins for me) i’ve got my number 1 bib back! As well as winning the national championships i also retained my title as Scottish champion after a great race off with David Florence, Beijing Olympic silver medallist, which continued  onto the British open which Florence just squeezed ahead of me by 0.27 after a penalty i incurred towards the end of my run but finishing 2nd i was quite pleased. Internationally it hasn’t been the greatest season but i made a choice after selection that i would train through this summer and that’s really worked well as domestically i’ve been near unbeatable. Looking forward to 2011 with high expectations  but also i’m really looking forward to getting on the Olympic course in London which looks sweeeeeeet. Thanks to Duemstuff for sponsoring me over 2010 and i wish them all the best in 2011!!

So my summers started good! I headed to Prague for a weeks training before moving on to watch the last world cup in Augsburg watch was awesome. After that i had a few days here which was great as i ain’t had much time on there training and it’s the kind of course you must learn which is why the Germans are amazing on it. I was feeling pretty good with how things have been going so i was looking forward to the getting home to race.

Cardiff is the first of the new whitewater courses to open before the London games and it’s a very good setup. Like a small Leipzig or DWD It’s fast and pushy so you have to feel your way down it rather then fight which suits the way i like to paddle. It was a cool race and had that foreign vibe about it.I had pretty solid runs and finished 1st which i’m pleased with. Now I have a bit of time before the next set of races so i have a few things planned which i’ll post as they happen. Adz

I’ve been waiting for this trip for ages! Athens is a wicked place and is probably in my top 3 courses i’ve paddled. It was the venue for the 2004 Olympic games which makes it extra special. I remember watching on the tele one of the best battles between Tony and Martikan  which the big man won in thee end and also fellow Scot Campbell Walsh winning silver which was quality!! Everything about this course makes me smile, well apart from the salt water that is. :)

My camp did kick off on a bit of a low note.  We got to the airport to fly out to Athens and the airline refused to take our boats. Not only that they wouldn’t fly them out without us being there to check them in which ment we missed 3 days of the trip!! After lots of shouting and swearing and angry hand gestures i settled down and just accepted it to be just one of those things. I must have been a bad in my past life!

Last night in Athens

Anyway once I got out there everything was perrrrfect. It was a really focused camp and the main aim of the camp was to fine tune my technical skills on bigger water but also look at my full run quality. Both by the end of the camp were very good. It was also good to see the other Duem team riders out there and i was very impressed. Benjamin and Simon looked very sharp and at a high level for this time of year.I hope they carry on the good work and hope to see them both on the team at the Europeans in Bratislava.

I left Athens feeling good and looking forward to the weekend were the British racing season kicks off in Bala, Wales….

see you soon

Adz

Hello and welcome to my Blog. I’d Like to kick it off by thanking Duem for making me a team rider, i look forward to kicking ass and looking flash with their help this year.

So, 2010…..I think looking back this has been my best winters training to date and there is still a few more weeks to go before i start to speed things up and get sharp for team selection. There’s been quite a shake up in team Marshall since the close of last year. I have a new coach, Neil Caffery who’s the biggest slave driver EVER. I’ve also decided to base myself away from the team in Nottingham and stay based in Scotland, thus working with the Scottish team and there programme which is  very different in training as well as the team environment . All of this has left me very happy with the way things are going. Anyway I have a post on my trip to Prague to follow and next week I’m off to Athens for my last tech camp before the racing season kicks off in Britain….stay tuned….or the Squirrel will shoot you!! :)