I was warned by many people that the conditions would be hot in Singapore - well nothing could have prepared me for the heat. We arrived at 8 in the morning and it was already 32C with over 85% humidity. You break out in a sweat instantly and don't stop until you get back on the plane to South Africa!

We arrived on the Monday and went straight to the course. The buildings are absolutely spectacular. It is unbelievable to paddle past such massive tall skyscrapers. The portage was across a floating football pitch on Marina Bay. A little longer than many expected and also quite slippery.

The only real problem came with my boat which was quite badly damaged during transportation. It was a big blow for me as I wanted everything to be absolutely perfect for my race. I made the best of it, but it did play a little on my mind. The rest of the week was spent practicing on the course and watching the masters race. The South African Masters team had brilliant results and expectations for the World Champs were getting high! I also spent time sightseeing around Singapore. It really was an awesome city with fantastic architecture and artwork everywhere. The Singapore people were very friendly and also all speak Singlish (Singapore english) so it was easy to get around. The streets are spotless with no rubbish or dirt to be seen.

Race day and I had an early start at 8am in the morning. The temperature was a scorching 35C, but I was feeling strong and ready for the race. The organisers for the event were terrible! I only saw the start list on the morning of the event and my worst fear was realised. I was drawn on the outside of the field on the bank. This meant that I would not only be on the far side of the fastest boats, but would also get all the waves from the concrete bank :-(

My start was good and initially I thought that I had actually broken away from the field. I dropped off my pace which was a mistake as I had not seen a group of 4 boats (2 x Hungarians, a Swedish girl and a UK girl) charging up the far side of the field. The race quickly settled with the leading group of four boats and me and an Iranian girl in the chasing pack of two boats. Sadly the Iranian girl was not too strong and I had to make a decision to chase on my own or allow the 3rd bunch to catch and find a stronger group to work with. At the first portage, we were now a group of 6 boats chasing. My hard portage training paid off as I ran hard and dropped the bunch except for the second UK boat. Unlucky for me as she made no effort to catch the leading bunch as her team mate was in front of her. I used my Garmin through out the race and achieved speeds of over 17km/h when chasing!

I tried everything to catch the front bunch and by the third lap was only 20 meters behind them. The moment they saw me, they put in a long group interval and I realised that it was not to be. I decided to slow up a little and conserve energy to make sure I beat the UK girl who was riding my slip wave. The last lap truly proved to me that all my training had paid off. I was able to put in a finish sprint that blew the UK girl (European Silver Medalist) away, beating her by 20 seconds.
I came 5th overall in the juniors and came 1st U17, I AM SO THRILLED !

This is the best result South Africa has ever had in junior woman's marathon champs. It was an experience I will never forget !

After the intensity of the K1 race, I had to pick myself up for the K2 race the next day. I was really tired on race day, but up to give it my best shot! We had a good draw and I was confident we would place well, if not medal. I decided to use the UK boat as a target for the race as they were favourites to win. Well that was not the best idea :-P  

The start was fast as usual and we were perfectly placed on the UK girls wave with them riding the Hungarian lead boat. It looked like we were going to have a free ride to the end of the race when....disaster, the UK girls fell out on top of our boat! We braced and hit their boat so hard that we broke their rudder off! We then had to stop, back paddle and go around their boat as it completely blocked our route. We went from third place to last place in a matter of 30 seconds :-(

We tried our best to catch up, but we only managed to overtake a couple of boats and ended with 7th place overall. A better result for me than last year, where I came 11th, but I still felt we could have done better! Oh well that is marathon racing and what makes it so exciting.

The rest of the trip passed by too quickly. It was fantastic to watch and learn from our senior mens paddler, Hank MacGregor. Hank paddled a brilliant race to win gold and become our new World Champion! Hank spent a lot of time talking to me about my race and the tactics I needed to follow in future. He was very positive about my race and seemed to think that if I had raced with better tactics (and a better draw at the start) I could have even won a medal. So I have come away from the race with confidence and a plan going forward. If I can work on my start tactics I will definitely be in with a chance of a medal. It was brilliant being the top U17. I had lots of other teams coming up to talk to me and I think next year I will be a marked women with everyone watching me!
Next year is Rome and I cannot wait to begin training.  If this is where I am now, imagine next year ! Look out for the next World Champion !

Oh yes - and I even got to drink a Singapore Sling in the Raffles Hotel.

Thank you for your wonderful support - I will keep you posted on my progress.

Luv
Ems