Thursday, February 26, 2004

12th in training!

Just a quick note to tell you all how training is going, had a couple of good days, yesterday i had a fantastic run, it was awesome, I finished 12th out of 24 women! Awesome, my second one was a little skiddy and i came 18th, but I know i can do it, so i just need to repeat it now.

Monday, February 23, 2004

Konigssee, 2004 World Championships Skeleton and Bobsleigh

We arrived here on Saturday and spent the afternoon wondering around Salzberg soaking up the atmosphere. Yesterday after getting our accreditation we headed to the track and watched the Mens 2 man Bobsleigh World Champs, it was nice hot day, 7 degrees, real t shirt weather! Team captains meeting last night was as entertaining as ever, there several new nations here for the skeleton world cup. America, Canada, Germany Switzerland, Austria, Latvia, Finland, Denmark, Burmuda, Korea, Japan, Great Britain, Holland, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, France, Itally, Croatia, Czech Republic, and there will be a few more that I have missed. We have 4 days of training then 2 days of racing then I go HOME!

Funny story, KELLY MOFFAT has earned the name KELLY FIESTY FINGER BREAKER MOFFAT. When we were here for the international training week before Christmas, every one went out to the local disco on the last night, when we were leaving this packed bar, some local guy grabbed Kellys arse, and with out looking at him Kel grabbed his hand and gave it a good twist, i remember kelly saying "that will teach him". So yesterday, a local slider and good friend of the kiwi team, Michi came around and it turns out that a freind of his knows the guy that grabbed her arse, and it turns out that Kel broke his finger! No doubt in the future he will be choosing carefully which bums he pinches! The same night Kel snatched a cigarette out of the mouth of a young guy on the dance floor who was puffing his smoke in our direction to his astonishment she dropped it on the floor and stomped it out.... apparently in a discusion at the local high school about smoking laws, a girl was telling the class that in New zealand people hate smoking so much that they snatch cigarettes out of peoples mouths when they see them! Ha.

Friday, February 20, 2004

In Innsbruck

We had a fantastic meal in Prauge on Wednesday, at a real good authentic Italian, and it was cheap too! We went and saw Lord of the rings ( with czech subtitles) in a HUGE cinima, we were looking for Ben (he played a Ranger and an elf) but didnt see him. It made me real home sick for our stunning country. It was a bit strange being in one of the most imprssive european citys (with archetecture that just blows this humble kiwi away) and watching a movie full of breathtaking mountain scenery from home, the other side of the world. We got back to Altenberg and decided to leave on Friday for Insbruck, (kel leaves today with the americans and goes straight to Konigsee). We drove for about 7 hours on the autobahn, even that is a cultural, compleatly foreign experience for a kiwi! Our car can go nice and fast. We arrived last night at the Landersporteim, the athlete accomadation from the olympics, and once again they let us stay with out a booking, i think every time i have arrrived here it has been late at night with no booking, they know us here now, and find room. We knew there was sliding here today but did not know the time so we headed up to the track about 9 am and found half the world cup field sliding, but the track manager has given us some sliding time for tonight at 6pm, which is better than sliding with 30 others. The Itallian Champs are on sunday, i am not sure if we will stay for them or go to Konigsee on saturday.... So now we are checking out the town, doing washing (it cost $NZ20 to do 2 loads!) and email.

I should mention the halarious communication issues we have had all week in Altenberg, the host of our pension (which is like a cross between a bed and breakfast and a hotell), was an old lady who couldnt speak a world of english. she thought that 5 of us arrived on the first day but only 4 did, she set bbreakfast for 5 and didnt understand that there wasonly 4 when we tried to tell her, on the 4th day she realized that only 4 of us were here, and wanted to know where the other man was and wanted money off him, we had a huge argument (I think, she did a lot of angry sounding words in german and kept saying 45 euro, and we kept saying no. she kept saying something like kwatch kwatch kwatch, which means lies or rubish. Ahh it was entertaining. We had the same problem yesterdaz when we were trying to pay up and leave, thankfully a young kid was staying who spoke a bit of english. Any way it has been a laugh, and I really need to learn how to speak German. Sorry but the spell checker is not working.

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Back in Prague again

We have all come back to drop peter off at the train station he is catching a sleeper train to Venice for a few days. Ben slid this morning, it was a horrible morning to slide, cold, windz and and lots of snow blowing around. Iain is still sore so didnt slide and I am done with Altenberg untill next season. Kellz was supposed to go to Konigsee with some Americans today at noon, but her ride cancelled on her after she cancelled her flights down there, very frustrating, but she has arranged a lift with the americans who are still here for Friday. Ben Iain and I are going to go to Innsbruck tomorrow after Ben has slid in Altenberg, there is sliding available in Igls for a few dazs and the Italian Champs are on Sunday, not sure if we will do them or be in Konigsee by then but will see, I have had 3 days with no sliding and I am itching to get back at it.

Ben has driven into praha twice in the last few days and been pulled up by the police twice, once for running 2 stop signs,, we didnt see them, and once for overtaking them on the autobahn and not having the autobahn toll sticker in the window, they just laughed when he showed him his kiwi licence and were real nice, i think they where hoping to bust some germans, but got some dumb kiwis instead.

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Prague is the most stunning city

So Kelly, Peter, Ben, Iain and I spent yesterday walking around Prague, it is the most impressive city, I rate it above Paris, I would love to live there some time. We did the tour of town, over the bridge and up to the Palace. Awesome. This morning Ben and Iain trained, I took a day off, my legs are still pretty sore from the race. Iain decided that he should prove that Kiwis really can fly and took air out of crysl, he now has a bruised chin, hip, elbow and major flesh wounds to the lower arm, he was most impressed with Tristan Gales (Olympic gold medalist) nursing skills as she band aided his arm! It sounds like he is one step closer to being a stunt man!

Monday, February 16, 2004

What a week! Finished 16th in the World Cup Final.

Well we have had a very busy week in Altenberg. Ben finally made it Germany he had to fly from Lithuania, it turns out his dad was deported from Poland in the past as well... I was a bit complacent when I got to altenberg, and I took a bit of a kicking and got a serious wake up call, you have to respect altenberg. I have had difficulty all week getting out of crysl safely, there is a fantastic photo of me kissing the exit at high speed, you might find it on Gets website, www.gecfoto.com (or it might be www.fotogec.com) I am wearing a bright orange suit with my silver fern helmet. My last training day was interesting I had a pretty huge hit out of crysl, when I wear my bobshoes I cant steer well with my feet, because of this I create less friction and go faster, but I have a damn scary run with little control. So I entered the race yesterday knowing that I had not gotten out of Crysl clean, was likely to hit the wall hard and fast and was not going to have much control with any toe steer. I was scared. But it was alright, I did 2 personal best down times, and one personal best push, crashed hard out of crysl but went faster than I would have had I had my other shoes on that give me lots of toe control. I also beat an American and a Japanese athlete both of whom have beaten me at all the other world cups. Ah this is a mad sport. So my overall world ranking for this year is 18th. Kelly finished 20th but didn't get a second run because they included the world cup final with the European champs and it meant there were 2 extra non-world cup athletes in the race (but not in our race) who were ahead of Kelly. They took her spot for the second run, it was a stupid way to run the world cup final, but it is done. Ben finished 20th and Russ 34th.

Today we all drove to Prague, it is a beautiful place, and I better go and have a look around instead of sitting in a internet cafe emailing...

We are in Altenberg until the 21st then we go to Konigssee for the World Champs, there is 3 days of sliding here before we go, don't know if I will slide here, or just let my bruises heal.

Sunday, February 08, 2004

World Juniors

Russ Ward Finished 20th out of 28 at the Junior World Championships in Winterberg yesterday, which is a fantastic finish, he placed ahead of athletes from Norway, Austria, Germany and the US. (Top 20 got made the second heat). Well done Russ.

Oh no! Ben has been deported from Poland!!!!!!!

The men raced yesterday, the conditions were terrible, foggy and drizzly. Ben finished 24th (again) and Iain finished 35th. The NZ men's team have qualified for the world cup final and have two spots at the World Champs and 2 spots on the world tour for next year. Ben Iain, Michella, and Peter are driving to altenberg and left last night, they got to the polish border and found that Ben could not enter with out a pre arranged visa, they were held up there for 5 hours, and we got a text saying that ben was deported, and he had to fly to germany which has cost him 300Euro! I guess he is already there, but the others are running 7 hours late and have probably missed their ferry. Kelly and I fly out shortly from Riga to Frankfurt then onto Dresden, where we get to have the fun I trying to get a rental car that is big enough for all our stuff with winter tires while being too young to officially rent any car that meets that description. There is sliding tomorrow in Altenberg, we'll see how we feel. I am excited to be going back to altenberg, it is my favorite track, and lots of athletes are scared shitless by it. I came 14th here last year during the world cup. It should be fun. I haven't heard how Russ did but I should see him in Altenberg tonight.

Oh yeah, the Americans had a car stolen right. Well they had about 6 of these brand new audis, and the next night, someone broke into the hotel carpark, and ripped out the computers and hot wired them, they broke down the fences to get the cars out but the US team had penned the cars in with vans, so they couldn't maneuver them out of the car park, the next day Avis showed up the took all the cars off them loaded them onto a truck and left, now they are all trying to get to back to Germany. Quite entertaining really. They were told not to take them to Latvia. No doubt someone is going to be in serious trouble in the American camp.

Friday, February 06, 2004

Sigulda World Cup

I raced today in the 4th event of the Skeleton world tour held in the small town of Sigulda in Latvia. I had a good finish of 17th overall (17th first heat, 15th second heat). Kelly finished 22nd (top 20 make second heat), she was having a good run until corner 15, where she hit hard and has finally got some impressive bruising for us to take snap shots of for the bruise files.

I am currently ranked 18th out of 31 in the 2003/2004 skeleton world cup standings, having placed 17th in Calgary, 22nd in Lake Placid, 19 in Lillihammer and 17th here in Sigulda.

Kelly and I have achieved a top 8 nation ranking for New Zealand which qualifies NZ for 3 spots on the 2004/2005 World Cup Tour and qualifies both of us for the World Cup Final, held in Altenberg next week and the World Championships held in Konnigssee Germany on the 27th and 28th of February.

Ben Sandford and Iain Roberts will be competing for New Zealand in the men's event here in Sigulda tomorrow, and Russ Ward will be competing for New Zealand at the Junior World Championships tomorrow to be held in Winterberg Germany.
The race is being televised on Eurosport right now and and was live on Latvian TV.

Results can be found on the official FIBT website www.skeleton.info.

The most impressive part of today is that I pushed a 5.71, that is 2 tenths of a second faster than I did in training. My down time was a personal best by over a second.

Again I was close to the next athlete ahead of me, if I had found 5 hundredth of a second over the two runs I would have finished in 16th place... Next time.

I would like to thank all my supporters and sponsors who have made it possible for me to be here racing for New Zealand on the world tour. Sigulda has been fun, I'm looking forward to coming back here next season. The rumors are that we will have a race here at the start of the year.

Oh yeah! The Americans had one of their rental cars stolen yesterday while we were all out at the race draw (a bit of an event the town and the Mayor put on for us all) some one followed the team doctor in and got the keys out of his coat while no one was looking and drove off in a brand new Audi. We suspect it is somewhere in Lithuania by now...The cops showed up in their old Lada (they also have an old Scoda), but I dont think they will catch them. There was a reason why the Avis guys didn't want the cars taken into Latvia!

And Ben has a black eye (yip, corner 15 again).

Thursday, February 05, 2004

Last day of official training in Sigulda Latvia

Well, yesterday we all woke up to rain rain and more rain, since we dont have a car we had to walk to the track in the rain, and we got soaked, down jackets dont like rain too much. Sliding in the rain sucks, you get cold and wet and your helmet fogs up and the ice is soft so you have slow times. I did my first run , and it was slow, not too bad, but I was cold and damp right through, so i cancelled my second run, ( you need to get 3 decents in official training in order to race so I had my 3), it was a good choice because the track got even slower, most peoples 2nd run was over a second slower. We then walked home wet and cold to find that the heating in our cabin was broken and work men where trying to fix it. Oh yeah, yesterday at training Jeof Pain, 2003 World champion, hit his head going into corner 15, he got the fastest run of the day but a huge HUGE swollen lump on his eyebrow, Kel has a photo of it, I will try to put it up some time. Goes to show that even the best can get beat up.

Last night I started to feel crook again, it wasnt good being out in the rain all day, and my stupid cold has returned, this morning I was feeling pretty ill, we got to the track (before every body else as usual), did a track walk, got my sled ready, and then packed up and went home to bed, my head was spinny, not a good thing when your sliding. So I missed the last day of OT, but it sounds like it wasnt worth doing, the track was soooooo slow, it is about 4 degrees outside so they have to turn up the refridgeration to stop the ice melting but this makes a layer of frost just like the frost in your freezers at home on the track, Slow slow slow. Lots of people were going slower than 60secs.

I slept for 3 hours solid, and feel a bit better, I need to go and pick up my race bib from the track and sand my runners, then I am going to bed. I'll be alright tomorrow. We are going to be on Latvian TV live and Eurosport. I have no idea where I fit in the field, since ice conditions have been so different for the 2 training groups, so we will just wait and see ;-).

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Hey I found out how to add photos!

Well today was the first day of official training, I was pretty nervous, and my first run was a shambles. It is amazing how fast you think while you are sliding, I was having a full on battle in my head, trying to stay focused on the run and not on hitting my head in corner 15, thinking about hitting my head was winning and it showed in my time. 59,55, but I didn't hit my head, and my second run was much better, a 58.26.

I haven't changed my visor but I just planted my head on the ice as I entered the corner, it cant hit the ice if it is already there. It works.

Well I hope to get a hold of some photos soon and get them posted. Thanks to Tim.


Me racing at the British Champs last month in Altenberg.

Iain, Kelly and Ben all had good runs, I think we all had personal bests. Ben is much better, he has recovered from his cold but has lost 4 kg in the process

Sunday, February 01, 2004

How do I add photos?

I want to put up some photos on my blog, but I need to know text to insert on the blog template, does any one know it? email me at lou@nzskeletonracer.com

Sigulda

Well, I slid yesterday, and had two better runs, but I had made a few changes to my helmet, in an attempt to protect my eyebrow from another hit, but it resulted in not being able to see very well, so I had two blind runs, not the best way to go down the track, but my times were still an improvement, Kelly did one run and way happy, Iain did two good runs and Ben was sick and in bed again (but the US team doctor has been to see him and he will be alright, he is getting better),

Dinner last night was most strange, the Russian team has arranged for us (NZL, HOL, FIN, DEN) to eat with them at a restaurant which is doing a special deal for all meals, we have been eating very late, at 8pm every night, and last night there was a party on at our restaurant, I think it was a 21st, and our table was on the dance floor! I am serious, we had the spinning disco ball, flashing coloured lights and loud music, right in the middle of this party, on the dance floor was a table of 6 hungry, tired athletes. Wired.

My Black eye is looking as pretty as ever, all the colours are coming out, Koshi (from Japan) and I have matching bruising/eye makeup. If you ever want to learn more about the other athletes I mention you can go to skeletonsport.com and look up the athlete/nation search and find out all about them. I hope to get hold of a luge visor, they are more sturdy than the one I am using and they are shaped, if I can get one, it will give me a bit more clearance from the ice in corner 15, and should prevent any more black eyes. I will let you know if I get one.

Today I was intending to slide, but once I got to the track (Kelly and I got picked up half way there by the Bromley Brothers, GBR) I changed my mind, the ice was slow, with strong winds and snow falling, I watched instead, it would have been two slower runs than yesterday and a waste of precious money. I am also nervous about hitting my eyebrow again. There is no training tomorrow, official training starts on Tuesday, and we have managed to get Holland and Denmark in a different training group from us so they can film us and we can film them which will be good.

Kelly and I think this would be a good place to come and do some pre season training, it is so much cheaper than anywhere else.

We might catch a train to Riga tomorrow, and do some sight seeing, after all your not in Latvia everyday.