Open Trials for Spain

The first weekend of April rowers from all over Spain came to Banyoles to show their stuff in the selection trials. Rowers have only small boats, pairs and singles to prove their presence in the eyes of the selectors.

Well, I hit the ground running hardly describes what happened in 2 days. A sudden, unprepared flight to San Francisco getting the visa... delayed on the runway, only arriving back in Seattle at 8pm... a call to say my boat had arrived... (Thank you to Carlos for collecting the boat while I was on the plane!)... taking the plane at 6am the next day to return to Banyoles... race the heat for the Open Trials.

The wind blew like crazy on Friday and the heat start was not pretty. But I won, and went through to the semi’s. The draw put me with Nuria Domingo, Spain’s only Olympic qualifier in the Open W1x. I was excited to race someone of her experience. The start went well, and I was off. At 1000m I was well ahead and won the semi to go through to the final. There I met partner Teressa mas Xaxars and Nuria Domingo again. This was the big one, where we were going to really show it all! The start was good. I felt Nuria with me longer than before. And I kept my head down and kept working. All the training from Carlos, this whole process gives me a confidence in my performance unmatched! And I was able to win this race by 5 seconds!