There is a crew who like outdoor activities: kayaking, climbing and mountain biking, but who connect well with their love for the sport of white water. Netherlands men’s junior team “Forward Motion” will be coming to the Youth WRC in Czech, and is definitely special because their captain is a female!? We spoke to Jenita about her team.
You are a woman in a man’s team, and the captain too, how do your guys look at that? :)
“In the beginning we voted on who should be captain. And because I already knew some forms of training and had a lot of experience with white water, we decide that I will be the captain. But in our team it is no different between boys and girls, we are one team.”
Will you go early to Czech for preparation?
“A little bit early, we will be there with the preparing days.”
Do you train on the artificial course?
“Not always, we were in the France Alps on the river, and some artificial courses, but normally we train on flat water or on Dutch Water Dreams, the artificial course in The Netherlands.”
How many time per week?
“Depends on the period of the year. Normally 2 to 3 days a week. But at the moment everyone is somewhere else. A few are working in Belgium, another person is working in France. So everybody is training by their self. “
Do you have a coach?
“Not really. We have got only a lot of support from other teams.”
In the photographs of the artificial course in Czech, you can see the difficulty and what the down river course looks like, what do you think about it?
“To be fair, the artificial course looks pretty easy. But we know that when you get a really technical river or in this case the course, it could be hard. So actually no idea, we will see.”
What do you expect from the Youth WRC?
“A little bit the same as at the national championships but bigger.”
Do you know something of the other men’s teams that are coming to the Youth WRC? Brazil, Germany, Russia….they have the experience…. how much do you follow that?
“We know that we are the new team and that we have no experience. We don’t know anything about them. Will be hard to beat them, but we try as hard we can and will make it difficult for them to win :) ”
Very interesting tactic’s which might bring them something after all!
They will be paddling on an artificial course which underwent a complete reconstruction in 2011 and in spring of 2012. Good luck young rafters!
