January 30, 2006

Subject: Miami OCR, first event of the year!

Hello!

I do hope that you all had a great New Years Celebration. I ended up just sleeping through New Years, which was actually quite nice and relaxing.

At the moment I'm in Ft Lauderdale, getting prepared for the Women's Single Handed North Americans. This event coming up is our first qualifier for worlds spots. There are two up for grabs here.

It really is great to be in Florida! I sometimes feel like I'm right out of one of those endless summer surfing movies... Always going somewhere new and warm for sailing!

The Rolex Miami OCR just finished up on Friday. This regatta was quite important for me and I am pleased to say that I managed to do exactly what I needed to do. I had to finish in front of most of the other canadians in order to qualify for the National Team for 2006. Also, there were two places available for the Olympic Test Event (pre-pre olympics). At the end of the regatta I ended up 8th overall and got both a place on the National Team and a spot for the Test Event. Jennifer Spalding finished 3rd and was top Canadian my miles. She was quite close to winning the event for a while which was great to see!

I am very happy with how I sailed at this event. With all the pressure that I had put on myself I still managed to pull through and not let it get to me. Leading up to the event I got quite nervous and I was feeling very rusty after having not done any sailing after the worlds. But it all came together quite well in the end.

This year at the Regatta, the Canadian Yachting Association had a very large support team available to us. This included coaches, sports psychologist, physiologist, and rules expert. It was a phenomenal change and a great step in the right direction for Sport in Canada. I do think it was one of the first times in a long time that I felt looked after, which did help to take a little of the pressure off. Even people from other countries were impressed by the strong canadian showing!!

Anyways!! Now I'm getting ready for the Women's North Americans and moving on with my planning for the year. Looks like this year is going to be quite busy. After Ft Lauderdale I'm heading to Clearwater to train and prepare for Midwinters East. Should be a good time. I will be training with Jen Spalding and hopefully Paige Railey (the reigning world champion).

I hope all is well with all of you. I do hope to hear back from you and find out what your years are shaping up to look like!

Take care and keep in touch
~~Keamia~~