News

228 days until the Olympics; 60 days until Selection

2011-12-12T18:51:00.000+11:00

Since arriving back in Australia from racing and training in Europe (myself in August and Ros in October) our sights have been firmly set on earning selection onto the 2012 Olympic team. For anyone who doesn’t know the story – there is one place on the Olympic canoe slalom team for an Australian woman, and there are 400% more of us than that who are capable of earning that spot. 50% of those are Lawrences. Yep, that’s right, only one of us can possibly go. Which makes for some friendly rivalry. But it is friendly – I promise!

It is now 228 days until the Olympics begin, and only 60 days until our first selection race. So for the last few months we have been:

Training really hard.
Making the most of the staff from the AIS and NSWIS who are helping us to gain every ounce of improvement that we can – technically, physically and mentally. Our coaches are our main support, guiding our physical and technical training. But we are also fortunate to have access to experts in strength and conditioning, physiology, sport psych, skill acquisition, recovery, and nutrition.
Racing – there have been some small races held at the Penrith Whitewater Stadium which help us to keep improving our race strategies. Also the NSW State Champs were held on the 5-6 November at Nymboida Canoe Centre. Day 1 saw myself in the lead ahead of Ros by 0.8s. The following day Ros pipped me at the post by just 0.56s. But close racing is good racing. It pushes you to look for where you can gain every fraction of a second. And it may be fractions of a second that decides who goes to the Olympics.

Meanwhile, we are looking forward to:

Christmas! (Merry Christmas everybody!)
The National Championships – to be held on the Mersey River in Tasmania on 3-5 January.
Olympic and National Team Selection, to be held at Penrith Whitewater Stadium on 10-12 and 24-26 February.

Here's to an exciting Summer! (if only the weather would be more summer-like...)

Sick times at Sickline!

2011-11-14T22:39:00.002+11:00

Sickline Homepage
This year Ros' post worlds relaxation activity was racing in the Addidas Sickline extreme kayaking world championships in Oetz, Austria (In an awesome Wavesport boat). She finished 5th in the women's, but it wasn't really the result so much as the participation that was important. The event was fun packed and well run and should be on every paddler's to-do list. It was extremely extreme.

World Championships = mostly dissapointing with light showers of success

2011-11-14T22:33:00.001+11:00

Success = Ros, Jess and Leanne 1st C1W teams!
Success = Jess qualified K1W Olympic spot for us all to battle over during Olympic selection in February, 2012
Dissapointment = Ros underperformed in individual C1 and K1

World Cup Prague

2011-11-14T22:28:00.000+11:00

Ros came first in C1 at the world cup in Prague and became overall world cup champion for women's C1! Novelty cheque- win! (Thanks ICF)
Ros was awful in K1, but we don't need to talk about that- Kate came a much more respectable 16th.

ICF athlete of the month

2011-08-09T02:56:00.000+10:00

http://www.canoeicf.com/icf/WorldClassCanoeing/Athlete-of-the-Month/Current-Athlete-of-the-Month/Roslyn-Lawrence.html

Check this out! Video on AOC website.

2011-08-04T23:55:00.000+10:00

http://london2012.olympics.com.au/athletes/aus-contender-videos/media/83111800-AEA4-11E0-B4E7005056B04A53

Kate racing in London test event tomorrow

2011-07-29T06:00:00.001+10:00

There are no live results, but we will keep you updated!

New AOC website

2011-07-29T05:59:00.000+10:00

http://london2012.olympics.com.au/athletes/aus-contender-videos/media/83111800-AEA4-11E0-B4E7005056B04A53

http://london2012.olympics.com.au/sports/canoe/kayak-slalom

Ros's Eurotrip thus far

2011-07-29T05:55:00.000+10:00

Wk 1 - Augsburg DR Sprint World Championships Ros 1st C1, 18th K1

Wk 2 - Bourg Saint Maurice ICF ranking race Ros 1st C1, 4th K1. Kate 1st K1

Wk 3 - Tacen World Cup 1 Ros 1st C1, 5th K1, Kate9th

Wk 4 - L'argentierre World Cup 2 Ros 2nd C1

Wk 5 - Leipzig World Cup 3 Ros 3rd C1

Wk 6 - Training camp in Bratislava- World Championship venue

Now - Training in Prague for World Cup 4

Two Lawrences in World Cup Final!!!

2011-06-28T02:45:00.001+10:00

By Kate

Yesterday both Ros and I had good semi-final runs putting us into the final in 6th (me) and 7th (Ros), with just 0.17s separating us! In the final, Ros improved her time and finished in 5th - an impressive effort on a challenging course (and it was her first K1 World Cup final!). I unfortunately got stuck in the big stopper exiting gate 4, and spent quite a lot of time in there getting spun around a bit, before finally getting out... I finished in 9th, but I was happy with my paddling other than the 4-5-6 section! It was great to be in the final, and even better to have both of us in the mix!

Video of the race can be viewed at http://video.digotel.com/eurovisionbest/icf/index.html including semis and finals of all classes.

Ros is now in L'Argentiere in France to prepare for World Cup 2 this weekend. I am in Augsburg in Germany for a training block. I'll be meeting up with the team again for the Olympic test event in London in July and the World Cup final in August.

GOLD for Ros in C1!!!

2011-06-26T02:06:00.000+10:00

Ros won the C1W final of World Cup 1 today!!!! Fellow Aussie Leanne Guinea took silver, just 0.31s behind Ros, and Slovakian Katarina Macova got the bronze. Australia had a good day, with Will Forsythe also making the K1M final and finishing 9th. Congrats to all!

Tomorrow Ros and I both race in the K1W semi-final (and if all goes to plan, the final too!). I qualified in 5th and Ros in 10th yesterday in the qualifications.

2011-06-23T06:51:00.000+10:00

By Kate

Last night was the traditional parallel slalom race on the canal in the centre of town here in Ljubljana. The event is always good fun to either compete in or watch, and this year both Ros and I entered. By the semi-final stage in the K1W there were four of us left, and of course Ros and I got paired up to race against each other (this happened two years ago as well - I think they rig it to see some sibling rivalry!). We weren't sure whether that was a bad thing because we were being denied the opportunity to have Lawrence vs. Lawrence in the final, or a good thing because it guaranteed a Lawrence in the final... As it happened, I beat Ros and knocked her out of the competition. Then I had to race off against the current World Champion, Corinna Kuhnle of Austria, in the final. Corinna is a tough opponent, and I didn't manage to beat her on this occasion. But I still scored a goody bag of prizes!

Ros (bottom) and Kate racing off for a spot in the final.

Bye bye Bourg... Thank you for the medals!

2011-06-21T23:05:00.001+10:00

By Kate

Two weeks in Bourg St Maurice flew by very quickly! Training the first week was a little cold. The water is mainly snowmelt, and combined with the cool weather, rain, a bit of wind, and the fact that it's pretty big whitewater so you're constantly getting splashed... it was cold! (By the way, when I say 'splashed', sometimes that's a face full of water so you can't even see where you are or where you're going - you just have to stick your paddle in and hope for the best!) But it is fun and exciting! Even when sometimes you feel like you're a cork being thrown around at the whim of the water...

I also made the most of being in the mountains. On my 'rest' day, when I was tired and coming down with a cold, I still couldn't resist making the most of the sun (which had finally come out) so I went walking up to a chapel and then a fort part way up a mountain overlooking town. Three and a half hours, 11km (it felt like more!) and an approximately 550m+ altitude gain and descent (again, it felt like more than that!), I had slowly made my way up the hill, appreciated a stunning view from several locations, enjoyed the gentle, relaxing sound of the bells on a flock of sheep grazing on the mountainside, taken only the occasional wrong turn, explored the fort as much as I could, wished I had the time and the energy to go right to the top of the mountain and see the view on the other side, and was back in town buying my dinner in the supermarket which was luckily still open. Two days later, after I had been joined by Christian and Sam, we went to a mountain peak. We did cheat and drive as far as we could first - but it was still a one hour steep ascent to the top, where the 360 degree view was well worth the effort!

Ros also arrived in Bourg after her Sprint Downriver win, and along with the under 23 team, there was a good Aussie contingent at the race on the weekend. After a few days of sunshine, race day on Saturday was wet and cold again. In fact there had been so much rain the previous night that the river resembled chocolate milk! The water level is controlled by a small dam not far upstream from the race course, so our first qualification runs were at the normal race level of 21 cumecs. However after that the excess water in the dam needed to be released, so the river was cranked up to 70 cumecs for the remainder of the afternoon, which meant no second runs! Ros and I both qualified easily for the K1W semi-final based on our first runs, and Ros also for the C1W semi-final (I didn't race C1 because I'm too chicken on big water!)

On Sunday morning there was a chill in the air and fresh snow on the mountain tops - but the sun was out most of the time and it turned out to be a beautiful day, and a rather successful one for the Lawrences. The semi-finals and finals were held on the more difficult top section of the course. Anything can happen on that sort of course, regardless of where the gates are, because the big water on its own is quite challenging. Luckily for me, after a nervous wait for results after the semi, I still scraped into the final in 9th with a 50 second penalty, which I somehow managed to get on the easy section of the course! My final run was clean and pretty much on line the whole time, which is something to be pretty happy about on the top section of Bourg! I won the race too so I was very happy with that. Ros was a little disappointed with 4th in the K1W, but she took out the C1W event, so it was double gold for team Lawrence!

Now we are in Ljubljana in Slovenia, for World Cup 1, after driving 750+km on Sunday evening and Monday morning. I was not originally going to be racing here, but one of the girls on the team is injured so as the next ranked boat I got the call up to race!

Ali (2nd, C1W), Kate (1st, K1W), Ros (1st, C1W)

Ros - Down River World Champs 2011

2011-06-12T03:30:00.000+10:00

At the last minute I decided I would race in the Down River World Championships here in Augsburg, Germany. I flew into Germany on Thursday evening. On Friday I managed to borrow a C1 and K1 from some friendly Germans and Serbians (Thankyou!!) for a quick practice, and today I competed in the K1. Unfortunately I am a bit out of practice in DR and did not race as well as I would have liked to. I am now motivated to do some more DR training and compete next year. Tomorrow I will race in the C1W, which should be exciting, and the rest of the Australians; Rob, Alex and Peter will race in the K1M. For results and more information see: http://www.canoeworlds2011.com/en

Kate's European Tour has begun!

2011-06-07T20:54:00.000+10:00

I flew into Munich airport just over a week ago, got picked up and driven to Augsburg (thank you Christian), picked up my new boat, fitted it out, paddled a few times, got over jetlag by my new method of sleeping whenever the hell I feel like it instead of forcing myself to stay awake all day, and then got in the car and drove to Merano, in Italy – via a beautiful mountain pass – for a race on the weekend.

The weekend was quite successful for me. After a 50 second penalty on my first run on Saturday, I pulled out a pretty good second run and narrowly missed winning by 0.12 seconds. On Sunday I won by 0.13 seconds ahead of Saturday’s winner. There was a prize of a new slalom boat for the overall winner of the Women’s K1 event over the two days, which meant that I won the boat by 0.01 seconds!!! I also won the Women's C1 on Sunday, which was a surprise! This was my first ever C1 race in Europe. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the presentation as I was hitching a ride to Bourg Saint Maurice as soon as my race was finished. My apologies to the race organisers and the other medallists - Jacqueline Horn and Stefanie Horn in K1 and Julia Schmid and fellow Aussie Ali Borrows in C1. Thanks to the other Aussies for collecting my loot for me!

My loot from the race!

I am now in Bourg Saint Maurice, France, for the next two weeks, where I am preparing for an ICF world ranking race on the 18-19 June. A big thank you to the Americans Jim, Austin, George, Butter and Ricky for squishing me and my gear in their cars to get here! Also thanks to Kiwis Yohann, Peta and Brent for letting us crash Sunday night at their place in Vigevano.

Ros' Eurotrip 2011

2011-05-19T20:53:00.000+10:00

8th June            - Fly to Munich, Germany
9th June            - Drive to Augsburg, Germany                  (training)
11th June          - Drive to Bourg Saint Maurice, France    (ICF ranking race)
20th June          - Drive to Ljubljana, Slovenia                   (World Cup 1)
27th June          - Drive to L'Argentiere, France                 (World Cup 2)
4th July             - Drive to Leipzig, Germany                      (World Cup 3)
11 July              - Drive to Bratislava, Slovakia                  (training)
21st July            - Drive to Prague, Czech Republic           (World Cup 4)
15th August - Drive to Augsburg, Germany                 (training)
29th August       - Drive to Bratislava, Slovakia                 (World Championships)
12th Septemebr - Drive to Oetz, Austria                           (Sickline - Extreme World Championships)
5th October       - Drive to Munich, fly to Australia

Selection finished... mixed results

2011-03-14T13:51:00.001+11:00

The final national team selection races were held on the 5-6 of March at Brady's Lake, Tasmania. We were there for most of the week, training in rain, sleet and snow - but fortunately the weather fined up for the race.

Ros has once again earned her place on the team in both K1 and C1, which is a great achievement! She will be racing in World Cups in June, July and August, and the World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia, in September. I, however, did not make the team. I simply made too many mistakes to earn a top 3 ranking - which until now I have been successful in achieving for the last 6 years. Obviously I am disappointed with my racing, but with every setback something can be learned, and I will use this year to prepare myself for Olympic selection next year.

Kate

Selection Races 1 & 2, Australian Open

2011-02-27T14:25:00.001+11:00

Last weekend was the Australian Open, which doubled as the first and second selection races for the Australian Senior team. In terms of selection Ros now has a 1st and a 3rd place in both C1 and K1, and Kate has a 2nd and a 4th place in K1. With two selection races still to come in Tasmania on the 5th/6th of March anything could happen to the women's selection rankings.

In the overall Australian Open placings Ros was 1st in C1 and 3rd in K1 and Kate was 4th in K1.
First place in the K1 men went to Campbell Walsh (GBR) with Will Forsythe (AUS) taking Second. Peter and Ladislav Skantar (SVK) won the men's C2, and Tony Estanguet (FRA) won the men's C1.

For more results see: http://ausopen.canoe.org.au/default.asp?MenuID=Results/20918/0/

Wish us luck for Tasmania!

Jacqui and Torsten married!

2011-02-07T20:25:00.001+11:00

Photo: Paul Stevens (Uncle Paul)

German tradition: sawing a log to represent working together

Jacqui and Torsten married on Saturday 5th February. There was a large family gathering of Lawrences, Andersons, Lachmanns all the way from Germany and many friends. The decorations were recycled and the food and drinks organically produced.

Congratulations Torsten and Jacqui!

Winner! Kate wins Oceania final

2011-01-30T18:32:00.000+11:00

For full results see: http://www.slalomnz.org.nz/ViewArticle/tabid/66/selectmoduleid/375/ArticleID/1218/reftab/56/Default.aspx

More details to come.

Kate wins Oceania qualifications

2011-01-30T13:31:00.000+11:00

Yesterday Kate raced the qualifications of the Oceania championships in New Zealand, which she won, followed by Sarah Grant and Jessica Fox. Semi Finals and Finals take place today. Wish her luck! For yesterday's results see: http://www.slalomnz.org.nz/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=fFsuz3JYfGA%3D&tabid=114

We made it in the Penrith Press :)

2011-01-28T20:32:00.004+11:00

Check it out: http://penrith-press.whereilive.com.au/sport/story/lawrence-sisters-compete-for-london-canoe-spot/

2x Gold @ National Championships

2011-01-24T22:56:00.000+11:00

Recently the national championships were held on Goolang Creek, at the Nymboida Canoe Centre. Despite a week of heavy rain the event was run relatively smoothly, thanks to all the volunteers. Kate and I both came away with a national title. Kate was the first placed Australian in the women's K1, behind Austrian World Champion Corinne Kuhnle, and Ros won the women's C1. Unfortunately, due to rising water levels in the river, the premier events (mixed C2 and women's C2 and teams) had to be cancelled, so we will have to wait until next year to show our style.

For full results see: http://www.canoe.org.au/default.asp?Page=20743

For a groovy video from Sportscene see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OnsC-ze7-8

Creeking

2010-12-16T10:28:00.001+11:00

Recently I (Ros) have been getting into a bit of creeking. Here are a couple of videos, one from a not so succesful trip on the Whingecarribee, and one from a sweet trip on the Leven in Tasmania. A huge thankyou to the boys Ben Hankinson (Horizonline Canoes) and Phil Gibbins for taking me! Cheers to Adrian and Mikel for making the videos and goodluck Mikel with your shoulder rehab!

WB - Leven Canyon River Guide from Adrian Kiernan on Vimeo.

Australian Canoeing Awards Dinner

2010-10-31T15:16:00.001+11:00

Last weekend was the 61st Annual Australian Canoeing Awards Dinner. There were a number of awards up for grabs, and my fellow K1W team-mates (Sarah and Jess) and I won the Team of the Year award for our efforts at the World Championships earlier this year. Congratulations also to my coach Myriam - who won Coach of the Year, Leanne Guinea - who won a Merit Award, and Jess Fox - who won Junior Canoeist of the Year and Canoeist of the Year (jointly with Ken Wallace from Sprint).

Thanks to everyone at Australian Canoeing for a very enjoyable evening. It was great to see a range of canoeing disciplines and generations represented!

Kate