Junior World
Championships France Brive-La-Gaillarde
5 – 8 August 2009
Return journey to the Junior World Championships as a more experienced athlete.
"It doesn’t really hurt if you can still say that it hurts"
This was my year. My year to prove to the rest of the world that the JW2- (pair) was going to be the boat which would go the furthest and qualify for next years Youth Olympics. This year I wanted to have the ultimate glory of being the only third woman’s crew/boat ever to make the ‘A’ final and a dream of going to the London 2012 Olympics in the near future.
As the end of the school rowing season grew to a close on a high note I was sad but also happy to have the best guidance ever form coaches. Also for me being able to have a full seasons worth of gold medals in the bag and winning the Schools South African Championships 2009 for the U18 single sculls event was the biggest highlight. Many new friends were made and being able to have an Olympian watching over my every move, I am proud to say that I had a wonderful senior open season with the St Andrew’s Rowing Club. This was only the beginning of what was to come. Trials for the Gauteng Rowing team is always a tense time in any rowers career. This is where you get evaluated on a 2000m ergo performance, a 2000m water trial and a 30 min endurance on the ergo. This all takes place over the weekend following the Schools SA Champs.
There
were two woman’s boats to qualify for this year, the single scull and the pair.
I (Claire-Louise Bode), (bow) was selected along with Kate Christowitz (stroke)
to row in the pair boat class and Kimberly Joscelyne was selected for the single
scull. Before our dreams could come true of attending this event we had to
achieve the minimum percentage to qualify for the junior worlds team. After 3
ferocious months of intense training and a ten day camp in Tzaneen in the April
holidays proved to be the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Kate and I made a
deal that this year we were going to train harder than the previous year as we
wanted to do well. We had been there before for the experience so there is
nothing new. Just two extremely focused athletes that are strong minded and
willing to take the pain and training to a new level.
Our trials were held at Roodeplaat dam along with the U23 and seniors selection so that we could compare our percentages to South Africa’s best boats. We got a very good time and were selected to represent South Africa at the junior World championships in France 2009. During a heavy five and a half months of training we achieved our fastest water time of 8:01:00 min at Roodeplaat. We had improved and were getting technically better as the time went on. We had proved to our selectors that no matter what boat we were in or what conditions we rowed in we gave it our all and that we were worthy of a place in the team.
After many water sessions at Roodeplaat, five/six time a week at least, and rowing the ergo for the tough work sessions, three times a week, we clearly started showing improvement to the likes of past athletes like Kirsten McCann and Peta-Leigh Daykns. I had my head set on one goal and that was to get as fit as I could and be able to be at the top of the field in the event.
When the day came to leave we were sent off with all the best wishes from close friends and family. This year it felt like we had all the strength under our finger tips to hall on the blades for every stroke down the 2000m course. We flew directly to France and then had a 3 hour coach drive from the airport to the town of Brive, who had a rowing theme going for the week that we were there. We stayed in the University Residence, where we each had our own room. We shared the res with the Ukrainians and Japanese, which showed us how hard a translation barrier really is.
It all started this year with an opening ceremony where we were able to parade through the town. In French South Africa is pronounced Afrique Du Sud, so we were first to be seen by the town as we lead the parade to the town square. There were interesting forms of dances in many different forms. They even did the gum boot dance!!! After hearing how this event came to this town we were able to have dinner and get into game mode for the racing that was to come.
When our boat arrived I had the smile on my face like a six year old at Christmas. We had gotten a beautiful boat made by Fillipi, which had a new design of skegs. It was a skeg and rudder in one with a hole in the middle! We had four days to get used to this extremely wonderful boat and two days in which to practice our starts and line up roll calls that are performed before races. After the training sessions on the water Kate and I decided that we were ready for the heats, the most important race for now.
Time finally came for our heat and backing down into the starting blocks I was not nervous but excited to see how well we had trained the past five months. Our heats were evenly split up with strong crews. We had the likes of the USA, Bulgaria and the French. Our game was set out for us as we had to come in the top two spots to qualify for the A/B semi finals to avoid rowing in the repercharges the next day.
Our heat results were brilliant. We clocked in a time of 7:31:78, our fastest ever by 30 seconds over 2000m, and got second place in our heat narrowly being beaten by Bulgaria and just beating the USA by a boat length over the line. We lead the race just after the 1000m mark and it felt like we were dominating the whole world in our hands. When we got to the shore after a warm down we were told that we had beaten the Germans time by a full 3 seconds and had the fifth fastest time overall. Now any day that you beat a German boat is a fantastic day.
After analysing our race we reminded ourselves where we came from and that we should be humble about our achievements so far. We got the following day off and I was able to watch the others fight it out for the last few spots in the A/B semi races. When we received the draw for our semi finals we were extremely excited as we had the Romanians, Italians, French, Germans and the Latvianians to fight against for the top 3 places in this race to go through to the ‘A’ final.
We had a fantastic start and everything from there seemed to go upwards. We had a good lane and were able to keep an eye on our competitors. Passing the 1000m mark in 3rd place I called a push to counter that of the Italians and when the marker came we sprinted with all our force to the line, passing over it in second place! We had done it. Done what no other South African pair had ever done. We had qualified for the ‘A’ final in a time of 7:33:64; again 30 seconds faster than what we had achieved back home. Kate and I were the happiest crew ever and after congratulating the others made our way slowly back down the cool down area to the jetties to find our coaches eyes full for tears!
Our families and fans were over the moon with happiness when we came out of the athletes’ area to great them. Never have I seen so many happy people who all waved a South African flag shouting our names. My chest felt like it could explode with joy as our dream was finally reached. Now all that was in store for us was a good nights sleep so that we could perform at the top of our game. Rowing in the ‘A’ final alone is an achievement and a glory in itself.
This year there were 66 different countries participating and a total of 780 athletes taking part in the various boat classes offered.
The time came for the race we had been training for, for so long had we sat on the ergo for many hours gritting our teeth taking the pain and giving it our all in the boat on the water sessions that we had, just to race this race. The time came when I became so nervous I didn’t even know what to say to anyone let alone convince myself that it was all our determination and hard work that had gotten us this far.
As we were lining up everything seemed to move in slow motion for me. The roll call started with the Italy in lane 1, South Africa in lane 2, Romania in lane 3, China in lane 4, Belarus in lane 5 and the USA in lane 6. ‘Attention’…. ‘Go’. We had the perfect start to our race with each stroke going in where planned and every ounce of energy we could muster thrown into our oars to propel us through the water. This was the race where we had to throw everything at it, including the kitchen sink! At the 1000m mark we were in fifth place in line with China and Italy but gaining on the USA. With 600m to go we had to start our sprint for the line now, or would never get the chance again. We caught the USA and crossed the line half a second behind Italy to claim fifth place in the Junior Women Pair Oar event 2009. This was an extremely wonderful experience for me and I am proud to say that we had given it or all, in every stroke taken and every move made during that race. Our final time was 7:33. We succeeded in achieving our ‘A’ final goal and obtaining a fantastic result as well as qualifying the boat for the Youth Olympics in 2010, Singapore.
Kate and I are now only two of four women in South Africa who can say that we raced in the ‘A’ final at a World Championships. This is the best achievement in my rowing career. I gained a good friends for life, Kate and Kim, and all my friends, family, and school that supported me all the way I am truly grateful for every step that you have taken with me down this road to the JWC of 2009.
Thank you to the St Andrew’s Rowing Club for all their support and encouragement from the new captain Ursh Murry and head coach Kristen McCann.
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