Activities
At the beginning of 2018, the national coach announced that the Irish canoeing champion Jenny Egan (3rd K1 5000m World Cup 2018) was offering her canoe for sale and that it would be perfect for me.
Together with my parents I raised the money for it. The canoe was then transported via-via from Ireland to England and then to Leiden. A few weeks later I was able to pick up my canoe in Leiden and take it back to Groningen.
In the following weeks I trained very often in my new canoe, also with the Focus Groups, to be well prepared for the coming canoe competition season.
During the international canoeing competitions in Essen, Germany, I reached the finals three times. In the K1 on the 1000 meters, in the K2 on the 500 meters and in the K4 on the 500 meters.
We came third in the last class.
I started the Youth Regatta in Zaandam with great enthusiasm, where I won a gold medal in the 500 meters together with Thura in the K2.
But soon my body started to protest and that resulted in a shoulder injury, which prevented me from participating in many canoeing competitions.
For me, the first part of 2018 was all about recovering from a shoulder injury.
Through a lot of physiotherapy, regular taping of my shoulder and doing exercises, I managed to regain the strength in my shoulders.
I did try to sail a few canoeing competitions this year, just to be able to sail, not to win.
At the Dutch Canoe Sprint Championships on the Bosbaan in Amstelveen/Amsterdam, despite my shoulder injury, I participated in a K1 three times on the 200, 500 and 1000 meters.
I was 4th twice and 5th once, results I could be proud of.
In February 2017, I went to Portugal for a week with fellow club members from the Groningen Canoe Club (GKV) to train there in nice warm weather.
In May 2017 I was allowed to go to the World Cup Canoe Marathon in Hazewinkel, Belgium. It was the first time for me to represent the Netherlands.
I was allowed to borrow a marathon canoe because my own canoe was too heavy. And it was all very official, with a pass, a NED sticker on my canoe and special NED competition clothing.
I sailed two races: 3.5 kilometers with 2 portages and 19 kilometers with 5 portages, fortunately both races were not on the same day, because it happened to be very warm that weekend (above 35 degrees Celsius), so from the national coach you had to keep drinking, drinking and drinking.
My father was with me and he provided breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3 days, so the athletes didn't have to worry about that.
In September 2017 I was also allowed to go to Olympic Hopes in Racice, Czech Republic for canoeists under 18 years old.
I competed there in the 200 and 1000 meters in the K1 and 500 meters in the K4. We did not reach the semi-finals or full finals in K1, but we did reach the semi-finals in K4. I thought it was fantastic to be able to participate in these international youth canoeing competitions.