BDA Nottingham 2010
Round 3 - wake up call...
(By Jim 'International Athlete' Joannou)
Form. It's as slippery and elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel. In Liverpool, we had plenty to spare from the word go...In Nottingham, a different story. Whilst we performed well in the heats of the 200m winning our race with the third fastest time overall (49'71''), this set us up with a challenging semi-final against Tao and Hurricanes. Whilst we had set a faster time than both of them in the heats, our form deserted us in the second race of the day and, whilst we dipped (50'59"), Tao seized the opportunity to better their heat time and seize the place in the Major Final...a serious disappointment on a day when we expected to do well as Amathus had not turned up, Batchworth were under strength and Kingston hadn't even bothered to bring a boat or paddles...!!!
The Major Final had us lined up against Hurricanes and Seklow. We'd already beaten Hurricanes in the semi and Seklow were way off the pace, so we should have claimed the 4th place spot comfortably. This time it was Hurricanes who picked their game up and, again, we dipped...even if only slightly (50'69"). 5th place when we should have been challenging for the top spot. Whilst we couldn't pinpoint why, we all knew we'd let ourselves down and needed to do better in the 500m.
With the lesson from Liverpool fresh in our minds that we should never stop pushing ourselves to post our best possible time and a determination to improve on our 200m performance, our first race in the 500m saw us demolish Typhoon Tigers by 6 seconds and I think Worcester Dragonflies might just about be crossing the line as I write this report. 2'01''56....not bad. Not bad indeed !! This turned out to be the fastest heat time and should have given us the easiest of semi-finals. But not this time...Batchworth had underperformed in their heat and were with us and Tao in the semi. We got our revenge on Tao for putting us out of the first Major Final of the day and left them trailing by 7 seconds at the end but, after a race that saw us neck and neck from the first stroke almost to the last, Batchworth found that last little bit of juice in the tank when we were running on fumes...2'02"34 to our 2'03"09. Another Minor Final beckoned but, whilst we were again disappointed, this time we knew we'd given every last ounce and were able to hold our heads high.
The Minor Final was against Thames Taniwhas and Execalibre. Based on the earlier times posted, it promised to be a close race between all 3 teams but we had finally got lucky with the draw and had the No. 1 lane, which appeared to be providing an advantage over the other two lanes due to the current and bend in the river. After our 5/20 start, we led from Thames by a quarter of a boat and held that lead all the way to the point when our helm, Five Second Eddy, decided that 500m wasn't enough for this team and added another 30m by slaloming through an imaginary chicane at the end of the course. That left/right turn of his to dance round the marker buoy reduced the distance between the two boats so much that the umpire only needed one blast of his horn as we both crossed the line. This was going to need a photo finish to separate us. After an anxious wait, we found out that we'd just held on to win by 2'00"53 to 2'01"25....the narrowest of margins but a victory we thoroughly deserved. We weren't the only ones to have a dip in form on the day and Execalibre finished on 2'10"09...a time that doesn't do their performances during the rest of the day justice.
5th in the 200m, 4th in the 500m....Nothing to be ashamed off but not results that this team feels happy to settle for these days, such is the belief that we are now the equals or better of any other team in the BDA league. We will be back and we will better....We have the spirit, we have the determination and we have the coaches to give us the edge we need....It's just a matter of time before we claim our place at the top of the podium !!
Mind you, all the spirit, determination and coaching in the world wasn't enough to stop us from piling into the first KFC we spotted on the way back down the M1 and feasting on some of the Colonels finest fried chicken....like the finely honed athletes we are !!!
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