Student worlds summary from a Gilly's perspective

I thought the trip warranted a summary as this was a trip with a difference. The trip and competition
is something that will hopefully inspire some more university students to take up an opporuntity, like
some of those who went did. The athletes selected to go were all full time university students. The
great thing is that some of the athletes were already well established in wild water racing and others
were new developing ones. Those who were selected to go after a selection race held in May were;
MK1 Jonathan Schofield, Grant Anderson, Robin Vasey and WK1 Gillian Mara, Anna Wise, Katherine
Burbeck

As the trip was a success in more ways than one, I hope this little account will make those who
didn't go a little jealous and for those who read this, think hmm I think I might be able to do this too.
So here goes,...

After what has seemed to be a very long summer of getting ready for competitions the last big comp
of the year for me was coming up. That being the student worlds being held in Krakow, Poland.
The event was special to me for many reasons, one I took on the role of sorting out all of us
students getting there, two we were taking relatively new people into wildwater racing to compete at the
event and three well I was supposed to go to the event 4 years ago but couldn't make it.

To say the least as there were a few frantic moments in the lead up to the event such as, sorting
minibuses, booking ferries, talking to the organising committee, and lastly finding drivers over 25 (a
harder chore than you would think, who would be crazy enough to want to drive to Poland with a
bunch of students driving a minibus and trailer for a week and then drive back again...!!!).
Fortunately, I found a couple very willing and excited at the prospect. Then when I had found enough
drivers, more then started offering, always the way, firstly you can't find 1 then 4 come along at
once. So after a number of 'O my God what am I doing', or 'what have I taken on', lots of phone calls
and thinking gees I have to train too and PhD - hmm yeah got to do that one too (full time
studentness sucks sometimes). I now have even more respect for Jamie for doing both, crazy
person, that is all I can say!

Back to it, so finally the day before departure has come. The plan was to pre-pack the bus and
trailer at the Nottingham club sprint regatta. Kat, Anna and I were all competing at the very windy
and rainy affair. After drying ourselves after racing which was more like a river race than flat water
race, we met with the boys and one of the drivers, the banter had already begun.

The bus was packed, we headed to Loughborough before setting off on our mammoth drive at 3am.
Yep, they all loved me for that one. Everything seemed to be running far too smoothly, the second
driver pick up, getting to the ferry, even driving in Europe. However, we did have a secret weapon
which was 'tom tom'. It made driving very easy. On route we played Jonnie's game of alphabet make
and model of cars, this lasted the full 23 hours of driving and letters 'q' 'r' and 'u' took a few hours to
get. In the middle of multiple conversations someone would shout 'Ford' and someone would say 'G
next'...Golf and back to car watching we all went, leaving the other conversations for dead.

On arriving to the German Polish border, us athletes were asleep in the back were woken to get our
passports out, another border to go through. Passports came to the front, the side door was opened
and the German guard with a good sense of humour checked our passports to our faces. It came to
Jonnie's turn and it went something along the lines of ...'Jonathan Schofield' Jonnie pops his head up
from his sleepy state, takes off hoody, smiles goes back to sleep. The guard looks and says 'stand
up and show yourself' So Jonnie looks slightly worried and does what he says. Needless to say after
leaving the border that line was the banter for jokes for a while.

Once arriving in Krakow, we went to the course, checked it out and found our feet. We later dropped
one driver at the airport to head back to the UK and picked up John Handyside, our coach for the
week. We soon found John had an amazing number of stories to tell and Grant seemed to have an
abundance of non-stop jokes.

Tuesday morning saw us on the water for the first time, a nice flat water stretch. For some reason
unbeknown to us girls, the boys had the urge to fulfil a life-long dream of reconstructing red arrow
formations, but with us 6 all wash hanging and changing positions on Robin's or Grant's call. Finally
the afternoon saw us on the rough stuff! We had set time slots and we certainly utilised our time, all
getting in lots of runs. The course was fairly continuous and similar to the bit between the first and
second pool at Nottingham but for over a minute. Training continued throughout the week, where
John was seen sometimes running up and down with some of the boys and girls, or taking video
footage, or generally just giving good advice. To those new to wildwater racing, he gave some
individual flat water sessions and after that everyone was flying down the course. The paddling
background for each of the athletes were varied three were primarily wildwater racers, but the other's
main experience lay in slalom, flat water sprinting and marathon. Needless to say, quite a mixture
really.

Friday saw the day of our competition. The Czech's and Slovaks were there making for a world class
men's and women's field. The layout was slightly strange. There was a nonstop for our 1st and 2nd
sprint run. Then the afternoon saw us take our 3rd and 4th run which counted to our final positions.
So lots of competing went on. Despite the weather, the rain and large inflatables taking things into
their own hands and learning how to both fly and swim in one swift action, it all went really well. We
had a good support crew with some parents coming out and waving the union flag with pride.

The athletes, after some last minute tinkering of boats were all super supportive of each other. The
women went off first and the boys either ran down the course giving support, or shouted from various
points for each of us girlies. Then the same went for when the boys went. It has to be said that
many other teams wanted to be like us...after spending so long in a bus together we had all bonded
and we tended to walk around in a pack formation. Other teams commented on how we looked after
each other and never left anyone out of anything we were doing.

Back to the competition, the results were awesome, Jonnie won, Grant came 7th and Robin came
8th. In Jonnies last run, Robin decided to run all the way down and shout him on and at the end of
the course Robin slid and nearly went in himself which made for another amusing moment and
story to tell. The girls all were ace and came 10th (Gilly), 13th (Anna) and 14th (Kat).

As our competition was over we all waited around for Jonnie to come back from the official's room.
The extent to what some of us had just done was hitting home. As we sat there reminiscing our
week with our parents, remarks of 'o my life...I have competed for my country' started coming out.
To which smiles and hugs followed. Representing your country is a childhood dream for many and
to fulfil it is just an amazing feeling. It makes the hours of training, hard sessions, pain and the
emotional baggage that goes with it all, seem worth it. Being able to take it all in and not have to
rush to be somewhere, just made it more special.

So many loo stops later...the opening ceremony was upon us and we put on our team tshirts and
the photo action commenced. It seemed the slalomists just wanted to be with us river racers and
tried to get in all of our group shots. We even convinced some of the slalomists they needed to
come do some river racing, to which they agreed if we did the student slalom they would do the
student river race. They seemed more enthused about the river racing in general...haha we will
convert them.

The opening ceremony was good fun with some good local dancing. Then one thing all on our
minds...yep food time. So we all went off back to our accomodation which was 30 minutes from the
course and decided to meet the parents for food. I think by this time the food provided, which
seemed to be soup followed by meat, cabbage and potato every day, twice a day was getting a little
repetitive. So into town we went.

A big thanks should go to my and Kat's parent for shouting us all the meal, we were all really
grateful. By the time we had eaten it was midnight and then as we now all seemed to have
boundfuls of energy and the night was young we all went (including some of the parents) to a Jazz
club. We then partied into the wee hours of the morning and eventually got home around 5.30am.
Then chatted and talked for a couple of hours more, Anna and Kat are both super hyper people and
can run about for hours!

The next day saw us up at 10am and back to the course to cheer the slalomists on. Then for the
prize giving where we all gave a great cheer for Jonnie, when he went to recieve his prize. Saturday
saw us have another fairly late night, I think the soup was going to our heads and we listened to
more of Grant's jokes. In fact one of them lasted a full 20 minutes. Yep it is true! A few games later
and much laughter we headed off for the land of nod. Sunday saw us back at the course to cheer
the slalomists on in their finals, then we started our journey back to the UK. Thankfully, the trip
back was just as amusing as the trip over and quick questions were being asked, everyone was
calling each other the nicknames from their youth. 'Pedro' to everyone else Pete, our driver, was
being a gem and happily following 'tom tom' and using the force from Yoda to navigate us home safe
and sound.

Over the course of the trip, the whole group gelled and worked as a unit and were a real pleasure to
be away with as well as being a brilliant example of how to represent your country. I think we all
learnt loads and for those new to the sport of wild water racing they came away with new found
confidence and bigger and better dreams. A big thanks from me to all of those who went, you made
it a really great and special experience. I think it is safe to say watch out for us all at the next race,
cos we will be there and be dragging some new people with us for them to share and have the
opportunity that we have just had. The only sad thing for me is that the trip is over and it is back to
the land of PhD, but the memories will stay with me for a lifetime!!!

Gilly x
aka E...laine (the others can tell you their own nicknames and the stories behind them themselves)