4 August & yesterdays opening ceremony

The team are on the water at the moment with today being a regular day - wake up, breakfast, row, lunch, sleep, row, sleep. I know that might not sound like much but it takes an entire day.
The opening ceremony was pretty good yesterday although the ‘entertainment’ was a little suspect – it did however provide the guys with lots to talk about.
The procession through town was great – we were the first country, ‘Afrique du Sud’ behind the FISA delegation and the Organising committee. We were led through the town by dancers looking like statues, handing out flowers to the locals as we went by – a nice touch. The town of Brive seems quite old with a narrow alleys and old stone buildings and the procession seemed to route through the oldest part of the town via the large cathedral in the centre. The procession ended in the ’14 July Square’ where all athletes were seated (makes for a nice change) while listening to a few speeches from the mayor and the FISA president. The ‘statue’ dancers then came out again and were followed by some random modern dancers who break-danced in silence (no music) and then to some jazz and other odd genres of music, then in silence again. They also went on a bit which was where the athletes started to get a little restless.
Dinner was held in a hall adjacent to the square and we all caught the bus back to our accommodation. I must at this stage point out how well the French are looking after us and how well things are run. The dinner had multiple serving points which meant that everyone got fed pretty quickly and the busses are very well run – we never seem to wait for more than 5 mins for a bus.
Camille – our ‘correspondent’/host continues to go the extra mile for us. He also appears to care more for us than his other nations (of which he has 4). He insisted on carrying our country name sign and proudly made sure our flag was flying high in front of the crowd through the ceremony.
Back to today – the draw takes place at 4pm and we wait to see who we are racing in the heats tomorrow.
The coaches have been extremely professional with their crews and all crews appear to be comfortable in their boats. There are practise starts again this morning between 10h30 and 11h30 but not sure all crews will make use of these today.
Please let me know if there is anything else you want me to write about (still have writers block) and would appreciate if you could pass on this website address to as many people as possible. I am also taking pictures and loading them straight onto facebook during the day – my page is open so you should be able to see them. There is however not always data coverage at the course so uploads only happen when we head back into town.
I am currently sitting in a little clubhouse overlooking the lake – it is brilliant. Most of the nations are on the water so the course looks busy, the fields around green and the sky bright blue. We could certainly do with a venue like this back home where people are able to order coffee /breakfast (preferably not in euro prices) and watch the organised chaos on the water. I am not sure that these kids will recognise how lucky they are until it is too late. I hate using the words ‘it is a great experience’ for the athletes but right now I don’t have any other way to describe it. The real benefit and worth of this tour will be where athletes return hungrier than ever to continue an international rowing career. This means returning to train through 11 months of the year to be the best – not only in South Africa. If we don’t get this right I will be as bold to say we are wasting valuable resources (money). I realise that not everyone will return to be the next Ramon (or Colleen) but as a federation and athletes of the federation we have an obligation to keep striving for representation and performance at the highest level. The Junior World Rowing Championships should be the start of a great international rowing career and the Olympics in 2012, 2016 and 2020 should be the ultimate goal.

Today has been filled with meetings. Andy, Jamie and I attended a Youth Commission meeting which was largely dominated by the confusion of the Youth Olympics and a couple of other matters. FISA is concerned that with the increased status in U23’s that Juniors might be neglected in their countries. This was soon put aside as then entry is the biggest in the last 10 years with 795 athletes.

An entire start list can be found worldrowing.com but below is a summary of tomorrows racing
9:48 JM4+ USA RSA POL NZL CAN
10:00 JW 1x ESP CYP BLR RSA PER
10:48 JM1x HKG TUN SVK GEO RSA RUS
11:06 JW2- GRE IND BUL HUN RSA USA
12:30 JM2x TUR RSA DEN SRB USA GRE

This is the World Championship so there is no easy heat but the coaches are satisfied with the draw. The progression is not something I care to explain today for the heats although it is worth mentioning that depending on the result of the JW1x, JM1x and JM2x in the heat they may have to race in a repechage tomorrow as well. I will post results as soon as they come available.
Also look to worldrowing.com for results. There is also another site which is taking pictures of the regatta – myrowingphoto.com

Best of luck to all for tomorrows racing !