Hello from China! I’m writing on the plane on our way back to Australia. What a journey the IDBF World Cup has been! We’ve had some tough and thrilling races, and come together as an Auroras team.
After training hard over the winter months, the 29 member Auroras squad (comprising 26 athletes, 2 coaches and 1 manager) flew to China from all over Australia on Monday 15 October. We arrived on Tuesday, and met up (for the first time as a full team) in Chongqing, China. We were escorted to our hotel in our very own team bus, which continued to transport us to and from the race site throughout the rest of the week.
With little time to spare, on Wednesday 17 October we headed to the race site to train. We were paddling on the Fujiang River, one of the many rivers in the Hechuan District. Despite being over 500m wide, the Fujiang River was flat and the current wasn’t too strong, which made for great racing conditions. The weather was cool and wet throughout the week, the water seemed quite clean (at least there was no blue-green algae!), and we were very grateful that it never rained while we were racing!
The first surprise was that the 10s boats had 6 benches (instead of 5) and the 20s boats had 11 benches (instead of 10)! So we practised for the first time having an offset stroke and end bench. Much to the approval of our coaches, Serge and Zeus, we took the change in our stride and locked in our timing without a hassle. Our sweeps had to make their calls extra loudly to cover the additional distance, as we had too little time to try the Chinese sweep technique of using a whistle.
The second surprise was that we had masses of crowds spectating and cheering from the river edge even though racing had not yet begun. It was pretty exciting to see the CCTV cameras being set up along the course too! The crowds only got bigger throughout the week.
Our third, and not so happy surprise, was that over half of our team (including myself) came down with quite serious food poisoning by Wednesday night. We heard that a few athletes from the Czech Republic and Ukrainian teams also became sick. In attempt to recover as much as possible before racing on Friday, we called off our entire second training day and spent the day in bed, on the toilet, and visiting the doctor. Worryingly, it looked like we were going to have to forfeit the first day of racing.
However, we all dug deep, supported each other and went out to race on Friday. The World Cup began with the heat and quarter final of the 1000m team pursuit in 10s boats. This was a very entertaining race format! The course was only 200m long and included 6 turns. All crews were separated by just 10 seconds, with the women’s boat setting off first followed by the men’s. Each team’s time was based on the slowest boat, so this encouraged all teams to work together. The strategy was to have the men catch the women’s boat as soon as possible, and then use each other’s wake to achieve the fastest possible time. Despite the tippy boats and tight corners, all crews managed to avoid any capsizes, though a number took on water on the corners!
To finish off day 1 of racing, we had the heat, repechage and quarter final of the 400m team relay in 10s boats. This was another great race format, with the women racing 200m up the course, and the men racing back 200m down the course.
Then, we all headed back home, thoroughly exhausted. Many of us could only manage some plain rice for dinner (as we were still all sick), before collapsing into bed.
Day 2 on Saturday brought the mixed 200m races in 20s boats. We were feeling a bit better, and focused on driving deep despite the fast rate. We won our repechage against Hong Kong, Ukraine and the Czech Republic, and progressed through to the Minor Final. After a great start, Iran just pipped us at the post by 0.24 of a second! This meant we placed 6th overall behind China, Canada, Thailand, Russia and Iran. We were all very pleased with our racing.
Next up, were the mixed 100m sprints in 20s boats. Again, we raced well and made it to the Minor Final. After a cracking start, we were beaten again by Iran – this time by just 0.04 of a second! – to finish 6th overall. We all headed home happy with our racing.
On Sunday, the third and final day of racing, we watched Canada come away with a gold medal against China in the 1000m team pursuit – the only race in the entire regatta that China didn’t win.
The final races of the regatta were 500m sprints in 20s boats. These were incredibly tough after 2 days of racing and half the team still feeling crook. Nevertheless, we did our best, raced hard and placed 8th overall, ahead of Great Britain, Hong Kong, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
After an epic week of racing, it was fantastic to celebrate together at the closing ceremony. All the teams were treated to a banquet dinner (including local specialties of spicy fish, intestines and mushrooms!) and we were entertained by some professional traditional Chinese dancers and mask performers, as well as each country’s (very non-professional) performances. It was a very fun and relaxed way to end the World Cup.
Now, a larger Auroras squad, including 5 other ACT paddlers from Ice Dragons and Komodo, are gearing up for the 2018 Asian Championships, which will be held in Foshan, China on 17-19 November. Wish us luck!
Written by Jacqui Williams, Ice Dragons
