Post Lucerne Posting!

Reflections on the Lucerne World Cup

The Lucerne World Cup is now behind us.  The boats have headed back to their European training homes in northern Italy.  The VTC athletes are now back in Victoria, the women are back at their base in Italy.
It was an interesting World Cup - it featured most of the crews we will face at the London Games later this summer.  The racing was fast, supremely competitive and a great test of where we are at 60 days away from the Olympic finals.  Our performance as a team equaled what we did at the 2011 World Championships in terms of medals - two silver medals and one bronze medal in Olympic events, yet there was a sense among the team that we have not hit our stride yet and we will see more and better at the Games.
There were some very good performances - the men's pair challenging the Kiwi's, the women's eight almost breaking the US women's eight winning streak dating back to 2006, and the men's eight setting a world best time in the heats.  But underneath it all, this is a team that wants to go from being good to being great.

You may have noticed that the team racing at the Lucerne World Cup didn't race with the Maple Leafs on their blades.  The honour of having the Maple Leaf on the blade is only bestowed on those athletes and crews who represent Canada at World Championships, Pan American Games and Olympic Games.  For all other international regattas such as World Cups, Henley Royal, etc, you will see the familiar Canadian colours on the blades but not the Maple Leaf. So the next time you see the Maple Leafs on the senior teams blades will be the Olympic Games from July 28 to August 4.

Eton Dorney Course

  For the past couple of days, our National Team Manager, Adam Parfitt, and myself have been in London, England finalizing our plans and logistics for the Games.  The venue preparation is well under way, the grandstands are being assembled, the tenting areas for the athletes’ rest areas are now in place and security at the venue is in full gear.  They are expecting 30,000 spectators per day at the rowing event and from the size and length of the grandstands it looks like it could even be a higher figure.  Our logistics for the Olympic Games are quite complicated and our goal for this visit was to confirm that the plans we have put in place will meet our intent to provide the team with the best performance environment we can. The Olympic Games are a special event and rules that apply to going to events such as the World Championships are not necessarily the same for the Games. For example, all of our boats and equipment have to go through an extensive security screen prior to being allowed to enter into the rowing venue; the clothing the athletes wear has very strict rules about logos and what can and can not be shown and even the Rowing Canada logo can not be worn on any clothing at the venue.
So now after our visit, we will finalize our plans, and the team will continue its preparation. The training will be hard and focused;  we know the racing in London will be tight, and our mission during this last phase of training is to ensure that our crews are prepared to be on the right side of tight.  

Peter Cookson, High Performance Director