Today we had a wide variety of results and 2 break throughs into the finals.  We had a couple boats out in the heats and a couple in the semis.  In K-1 Women 200 16 years, Alyson Morse went through the semi-final to reach the final and 5^th place.    In C-1 Men 200 15 years, Matthew Lam placed 2^nd in the heat, and went directly to the final where he also placed 5^th.  The C-4 men 200 15 – 17 years of Matthew Lam, Gavin Ross, Caleb Chuck and Zach Guay had a direct final and placed 6^th.  These were all really good showings.

Congratulations to the entire team for a tremendous effort turned in by all the team members – Natalie Griffin, Alyson Morse, Isti Urban, Garen Doyle, Michael Weyna, Dylan Puckett, Gavin Ross, Caleb Chuck, Matt Lam and Zach Guay.  Where we did not make finals we did get some PRs.  Thanks also to the staff of Alison Derrick, Kristi Guay and Joel Guay for their wonderful commitment to the kids and their racing efforts.  Thank you very much to the parents for your caring support and financial commitment to your kids and their canoe/kayak endeavors.  To all the club coaches who helped with the training and preparation of your athletes, your time and efforts are greatly appreciated.  Thanks to USACK Selection Committee and especially Mac Hickox for the opportunity to lead and coach this team.  It was great to work with all these fine young people and staff.

Tomorrow we get a very early start and drive to Budapest, then fly to Frankfurt and Dulles together.  Then we part company and head to our individual homes.  I hope we have the opportunity to pursue athletic greatness in canoe/kayak together  in the future.

To wrap up I’d like to describe our final team meeting at the race course.  We talked about how when we arrived we were intimidated by the huge Hungarian and German Teams on each side of us, how we were scared out of our lanes during the training days before the competition – literally deer in the headlights.  And how on our last day that was transformed to a focus of qualifying for finals and reaching for the podium.  For me, the transformation was remarkable.  

We also discussed what we need to do to bridge the gap between where we are now and reaching the podium – the volume of training, developing muscle mass, and improving our speed endurance.  I believe that this group of fine young US paddlers is up to the challenge.  Let the good work that leads to the podium continue in earnest.