The Squad

Day 2 of Nat Champs and the sun shone after yesterday's torrential rain. We have five boats in the A/B semi finals. Six boats race and the top three from semi-final go into the A final in the afternoon. The other six race a B final.

The J15 girls double and boys double won silver. The other boats raced in B finals, but all did well.

Tom came 5th in his B final - so was 11th overall out of 40 entrants. He'd been very nervous, but not as nervous as some. He was racing next to another boy he'd met at a previous competition. 'Did you talk to him at the start' I asked. 'Yes' he replied 'well, until he had to throw up over the side of his boat, then we sort of stopped talking…..'

Tom was last in his final and in tears by the end of his race. Although he'd achieved his goals and exceeded them, he hated coming last in a race, especially after taking home a medal last year. I had to remind him that it was just four months since his knee operation, that he is new to a single, and this is the first event he's raced in a single and not capsized. In fact he almost didn't do it he was so scared, so he's achieved a lot. They are so hard on themselves sometimes, although I suppose that's what makes them good athletes, that constant drive to do better.

I'm rather exhausted now too - thank goodness things will tail off a little now competition wise. What on earth am I going to do with my time?