The C2 slalom combination of Cyprian Ngidi and Cameron McIntosh didn't make the final of their event. I didn't expect them to as I saw their participation as development. I really hope that by 2012 we will have gone beyond 'development'.
I have no doubt that participation in the Olympics for Master, Cyprian and Cameron was an experience of a lifetime with high hopes, trepidation, excitement, disappointment and much more.
Cameron's word express this fantastically ...
There are three races that stand out in my memory.
The 1st one was in 1998 when I won SA Champs for the 1st time on the Bushman's river. It was a huge mental boost for me especially because it was such a close tussle between myself and Guy Collyer.
The second was my K1 race at Africa Champs in January when I had one of my best runs but got beaten by Benjamin Boukpeti from Togo who went on to win yesterday’s Bronze.
And then today will be a day I will remember for the rest of my life.
It was bizarre to think that after 13 years of trying here Cyp and I were lining up for the Olympic Games.
The sacrifices that have gone into this just seemed to pale away as we went up the conveyor belt and all of a sudden were surrounded by 12 000 screaming spectators and TV Camera’s all over the place. I was quite calm in the circumstances and fortunately time ticked by quickly and we got the signal to go.
We just didn’t hit the lines and click in our 1st run. There were so many mistakes and we reached the finish thinking that was not what we were capable of. So it was just going to come down to a good second run...
Now Cyp and I changed positions in February this year with me going to the back and him moving to the front. It took us 2 weeks before we could remotely paddle in a straight line on flat water!
In the 2nd run it just clicked. We hit each line perfectly and got to the end knowing that was the best run we had ever had. In gate 13 we made a small mistake and missed the gate by a fraction but it still doesn’t take this fact away: Our 2nd run time would easily have put us into the semi-final. That fact gives me greater satisfaction than I have had in 20 years of paddling.
Bring on 2012
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