The World Series, American Open event was held at ASCI (the same venue as Senior Nationals) and athletes from all over the world were there to compete. The C1W had a full class, yet again. It's very nice to see more ladies out in canoes.
I arrived at ASCI on the 30th of September, and trained through the 2nd of October with the National Canoe Team Coach, Cathy Hearn, and the Front Range Paddling Association Coach, Chris Weigand. My training went very well. They were running the course at higher water levels than I had ever paddled on before, so it became very pushy and technical. But as I spent more time on the water, I began to really like how I performed on that sort of water level.
On Friday the 3rd, first runs were held at 11 am. I was the first boat down the course, and had a very smooth run, with only three touches. My second run was faster, but I had 1 more touch. With that combined score, I was in second, and I would move on to finals the next day, along with two other women.
On Saturday morning, we had Semi-finals. I had a decent run, but I wasn't sure it was going to put me in line for first. The two other women took their runs, one of them, Carolyn Peterson, beat me by 11 seconds, while the other, Micki Reeves, didn't finish the course. Carolyn was in first, and she and I were advancing to finals.
Coming into Finals, I knew I had a lot of time to make up if I wanted to pull ahead, but I kept my mind off of the time I needed to cut down on, and focused on mentally "perfecting" the course.
I had a really nice run, and was pretty clean, as far as I can recall, but looking back, most of it is a blur. I finished smiling, and moments later, Carolyn crossed the finish line. She hadn't had a very clean run, and I was in first.
It was my first International event where I placed No. 1, and I'm absolutely ecstatic!
7 comments:
Dear Hailey:
Congratulations, on your first championship in an international event, may it be the first of many. I only wish I had been there to see you race! Love, Mom
Congratulations, Hailey. I think Nemo needs a twin brother (or sister) so get busy and order yourself a new boat. Uncle Darren is buying. :-)
WOW! Eric posted this on facebook and I couldn't believe it! Congrats on everything! You have turned out to be quite the professional :D I hope all is well and I agree, may there be many more!
TARA
Hailey, I am so proud of you!! I can't wait to see you again; it's been way too long!!!!!! :(
See ya when you get back from good 'ol Colorado!
Congratulations Hailey, I hope you have many more great runs and that I can see you compete again soon.
Love Nancy
Hi Hailey
congratulations on your genius results!!!!
How amazing to see another woman in a C1 - I'm from Germany where there are a few women in whitewater, and no single one in slalom (nor freestyle). At least I have never seen one except myself.
Someone on CBoats.net posted me the link on your blog (wich is beautiful, by the way) - may I ask you if you feel like exchanging experiences about C1 paddling? I'm a beginner and about getting my slalom activities more serious. So I could need some advice from a female paddler how to do this as a woman. And since there are no other C1 girls around here, I thought about asking you.
If you feel like mailing, I'll be happy to hear from you. (my mail adress is sabrina_wingedcanoe@web.de )
Have a good time and fun on the water
yours
Sabrina
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