Bankside report on the Junior European Championships, Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 2006

This report is intended to be a light hearted review of the trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina and does not seek to comment on the racing itself (great though it was).

The team flew into Ljubljana along with a stag party complete with a groom wearing a fluffy yellow Stetson, pink string vest and large lacy knickers worn Superman style. They were met by two minibuses and trailers that had been driving across Europe for the past couple of days. A decision was made to drive to Bihac via the motorway, a longer route but one that should have been more comfortable for the team. However, a broken down vehicle in a single lane tunnel meant an hour and half stuck in a traffic jam. Luckily the buses could communicate between them via two way radios, and along with essential information were used to bet (with no stake) on the time of arrival. The latest estimate (from Jackie) of 8.00pm proved the winner.

Continuing the matrimonial theme, our arrival at the Hotel Sedra coincided with a Bosnian wedding - a noisy affair. The first night's meal was served alongside the wedding party with music so loud it was impossible to speak even to one's next door neighbour. The team was housed away from the main hotel building (had they had advance warning about the levels of tidiness normally achieved in junior team accommodation?) in wooden rooms rather resembling saunas. The temperatures that occurred later in the week confirmed the resemblance to saunas. However, the position away from the hotel meant there was lots of space for drying kit, storing boats and having team talks. The hotel location could not have been more convenient as the finish of the classic and the get out was on the hotel river frontage.

A rather long day for Maitland and Jackie was capped by a disturbed night when a dog gave birth to puppies right outside their window. The mother wouldn't feed the puppies which then whinged and whined all night. Fortunately after much pleading, the dogs were relocated for the following night.

Many of the teams were staying in the hotel as it was the only really convenient accommodation in the area apart from camping. The dining room was set up with long tables for each team, marked by the nation's flag. The meals were a mixed success, the more adventurous eaters enjoyed squid, liver and fish (not all at once), but the more traditionally inclined had to be supplemented with pasta cooked on a camping stove. What nobody could handle was the tea and coffee. The tea was so weak that three tea bags in a small cup still failed to produce more than a faint colour, and the coffee appeared to be 98% chicory! Luckily some instant coffee and teabags had been brought from the UK and those journeying later were instructed to bring more. The hotel were happy, if a bit bemused, to supply jugs of hot water to the strange English people.

One of the waiters spoke reasonable English, but was small and had a similar manner to Manuel from Fawlty Towers, and soon became known to us by that name. He delighted in teasing the last person to be served pudding that they owed him two euros - a ploy that certainly caught out a couple of youngsters. The Bosnian diet consists of meat, meat and more meat, resulting in a diet that was rather high in protein and lacking in complex carbohydrates. We managed to get this changed, much to the disgust of some of the team who covetously eyed up the chips being served to other nations. Unwittingly we landed Manuel in a lot of trouble one day. Some of the team had gone to the dining room at lunch time to find that the British table had not been laid up. Not daunted, they switched the German flag and the Union Jack, and Manuel happily served them lunch. Unfortunately it was only when the German team came in that it was discovered that reception had given the order for packed lunches for the British team on the wrong day, and the team had just eaten the German's lunches - war has been started for less but WWR is a friendly sport and the two teams remained on speaking terms. In fact all the teams were very friendly and would happily offer transport to people walking along the road.

A feature of the hotel was the feral dogs. A motley crew of about 15 dogs, they roamed around looking for scraps and playthings. They couldn't believe their luck when all the kit from the teams in the main hotel was laid out on the grass to dry. Buoyancy aids make for a great tug of war whilst helmets have chewable straps.One person lobbed a canoeing shoe at a dog about to lift its leg on his boat, only to see the dog grab the boot and make off with it.A four or five month old largely German Shepherd pup would chew anything in its reach, mostly ankles, but was so adorable that most people would forgive it and it was even brought dog chews for a treat.

The Una is not a rocky river and in the rare collisions between boats and the soft rocks, the rocks tended to come off worse. This meant that the nightly repairs seen at Mezzana the previous year were not needed. This did not stop one junior making repairs before the boat had even seen the water (and no, it wasn't damaged on the way over…).

Off water preparation is vital and bank warm-ups were used before every river session. These were not without incident. The run on the first day was enlivened by a barking dog at their heels, resulting in squeals of terror and a turn of speed from one junior never seen before or since. Maitland and James took one session together, a pairing that was soon disbanded after Maitland accidently poked James in the eye during one exercise making him look as though he had gone two rounds with Mike Tyson. They did, however, manage to beat the juniors in the sprints - it is a good thing that the younger generation are judged by their performance on the water rather than off. Punishments for misdemeanours such as being late, forgetting kit and backstrokes (or stalling the minibus if you were an adult) were pressups. Lots of hill starts with air conditioning on meant that the drivers were at a distinct disadvantage.

We had been warned that there are snakes in the area and James had already come across one basking on a rock by the river. However, Jes had the closest encounter. Sitting on a rock by the water ready to take pictures, he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. This movement turned out to be a good sized snake with a fish in its mouth. Ever the professional, Jes stayed where he was (perhaps reckoning that the fish was tastier than his toes) and whipped out his camera to capture this great image (a larger version of this picture will be on the gallery soon).

The northern part of Bosnia is very beautiful with mountains and valleys and the clearest possible river. However the legacy of the war is never far away with houses riddled with bullet holes, minefields just over the border in Croatia and tourism is still relatively undeveloped. The hotel had an unusual fire instructions sign which included a series of different alarm signals in the case of air raids, biological warfare, nuclear warfare and attack by armed forces. However, the most dangerous things encountered were the local snakes and even these are not killers. The Junior European Championships was a big event in the area with huge billboard posters and TV advertising, and with the results being reported on the news.

The juniors kept a noticeboard with unfortunate remarks that team members had said. These included

"What's the difference between the Worlds and the Europeans?"
"Is South Africa in Europe?"
"Full carbon? Isn't that heavy?"
"It's not my fault I talk rubbish"
"I am a morning person, I just don't like getting up."
"Swedes are from Switzerland."
"Neil and Stampsey"

The last one was not so far from the truth since it did seem at times that Neil Stamps managed to achieve as much as two men. His preparation and dedication to detail was second to none, and his and Michael Mason's daily pre breakfast paddling trips ensured that information on the new fastest routes in the dropping river conditions were always available to the paddlers, whilst James Wingfield's Canadian experience meant that the young C2 crew impressed us all. The ratio of three coaches to 10 boats meant that all the paddlers received lots of individual attention.

Most of the supporters were able to help on the race days, jobs included clambering down very steep embankments and paddling across a pool in a plastic boat to assist at the sprint start. This freed up the coaches to take video during the first run and to review it with the paddlers before their second run - something no other team achieved. This level of attention to detail resulted in three paddlers in the top 10 in the sprint - a feat not seen since Neil himself was a junior along with Ian and Alan Tordoff.

The weather over the whole event was, as was the case in the whole of Europe, incredibly hot. Sprint day topped out at 41 degrees and keeping cool was a priority. Unfortunately we were advised not to drink the water so bottled water was a necessity. With each person drinking several litres a day, the small local convenience store and the garage soon ran out of supplies and prices quickly adjusted in line with demand resulting in a significant water bill. The ice cream shop on the edge of the hotel site and at the get out did a roaring trade with an ice cream cone with two varieties of ice cream costing the equivalent of 35p.

On canvassing the team for their comments on Bosnian driving standards the following words were used, overtaking on blind corners, mad, eclectic, fun (a bit worrying - thank goodness that person isn't driving yet), downright dangerous. The 4km piece of road between the start and the finish was littered with memorials to crash victims and there were two serious accidents while we were there. The fact that Bosnians can only talk using both their hands even while driving might well have something to do with it.

The Bosnian organization was somewhat erratic. The sprint course was only known after it was set up on the morning of the race and race time was put forward 5 minutes after some of the teams had set their watches. Even more worryingly, the finish banner was about 5 metres before the timing beam. Prize giving produced some more interesting times, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd boards on the prizegiving podium were only erected for the second prizegiving and one of the banners round the stage had been left rolled up and was hastily unfurled as the first set of nations' flags were being put up. There was no timing display at the sprint course so the paddlers had to paddle a further 8 or so minutes to find their times, whilst a group of eager supporters at the classic finish huddled round the display willing the timing clock to stop, but seeing none of the action.

A trip such as this does not happen without a great deal of help and effort, much of it behind the scenes. Immense thanks are due to Neil Stamps, Michael Mason, James Wingfield and Maitland and Jackie Hyslop and also to the cast of supporting parents and friends who willingly undertook the tasks allotted to them and cheered the paddlers home. Finally thanks to the team themselves, they worked hard, remained focused and cheerful and all have returned home with achievements of which to be proud.