After the victory in K2 in Caceres, Jorge Alonso has been training a few days with Albert Coromines in Banyoles, to know the stage of the World's Championship.
Hi Jorge!
We are so pleased that you have decided to come to Banyoles and train in order to get used to the lake and the track of the next World Championships. What have been the first impressions so far?
Actually, to be honest it is a precious landscape with perfect conditions to paddle. Besides, these days the weather has been really good, without wind or waves and we have trained so hard.
I also want to thank to Albert and to the Club Natació Banyoles, because they are treating me really good and giving me all I could ask for.
Have you trained in Banyoles before?
I came to Banyoles in 2008, for the Spanish Marathon Championship and in 1999 for the Spanish Winter Championships, I think.
The landscape and the lake are marvellous and they speak for themselves, even though it rained a lot twice.
I haven't good memories because I didn't reach 100% what I was looking for, but the organisation of the competition was excellent.
This year you have changed of paddler and it's the first time you paddle with Albert Corominas in K2. How it happened?
Albert and I knew each other because we both tried to classify for the World Marathon Championships in previous years.
In the 1000m Spanish Cup, we spoke about how we faced the season for the World Marathon Championships in Banyoles. At first, I hadn't the idea to try to classify in K1, because I have been paddling internationally in K2 for eleven years and I prefer the team boats rather than the individual ones.
Albert was in a similar situation, but also preparing K1, awaiting for the decision of his team mate in other competitions, Ivan Alonso. A few weeks later, we both decided that it could be a good idea to try K2 together in the Spanish Marathon Cup, and everything started to march well.
In this Marathon Cup, Albert and you won, but because you were from different clubs, you didn't get any points. What were your sensations?
Well, actually, we competed almost without have trained anything together. We won and we also classified for the next World Marathon in the Czech Republic, which is genial, but we also know that we have to get better and fitter if we want among the best ones in the World Cup and in August for the classification of the World Championships in Banyoles
BY JORGE ALONSO
How do you see the classification for the World Championship?
In Spain, the classification in K2 is really complicated, because in different occasion the two Spanish boats ended getting the gold and silver in the World Championships, like in 2008, when the boat that didn't classify was a medallist in a World Cup.
We know it's going to be tough, but we hope that we will be fighting and we'll try to make the most of our chances, that we'll have if we keep training hard like we are doing for the time being.
In which competitions will you take part in order to get ready for the World Championships?
The World Cup in the Czech Republic will be a good test, because there will be different medallists in the last World and European Championships. That's why we choose this one and not the next one in Germany
And in August, the International Competition in the river Sella and other competitions that can be interesting depending on the dates and the training we will be doing.
However, in July in Valladolid and Sanabria, there will be international K4 competitions where we will take part or not, depending on what the selector manager says.
BY RFEP
In Spain, a lot of velocity paddlers end up trying the Marathon modality, but it's never in the other directions. What do you think is the main reason?
Well, it depends a lot on the country tradition. In Denmark, Norway or England there has been a lot of paddlers that have competed first in Marathon and the in the fast track. However, I think the main reason is that in the fast track it's necessary to do a specific training in the way the paddle gets in the water in order to do it hard and quick. When they want to compete in the Marathon modality they have the habit in resistance and they only have to soften the way of paddling.
In the other direction, if you have been training in marathon for a while, you loose gradually the way your paddle get in the water hardly and quickly and it's more complicated to get the fast rhythm of the track.
It also happens in other sports like athletics where the athletes naturally changes for longer distances as they get older in order to get the most of the rhythms they have been trained and also doing more jobs of resistance.
Do you think that Spanish selector managers work with a more objective criteria in Marathon than in the fast track?
To be honest, I think that actually they are working equally objective in both modalities, because in Marathon we are playing our classification in the 22nd of august and in the fast track, they are also doing they selective classifications.
I reckon that there's no more the arbitrariness that a few years ago, where it wasn't usual to hear this kind of commentaries.
It is also true that play everything on one card like in Marathon can have advantages and disadvantages. But we all know the criteria and they are so clear.
And eventually, which national selections do you think will be the most dangerous in the World Marathon Championship?
Apart from the Spanish one that always is the first positions, there are the Czech Republic, with two K2 medallists in the last World Championships and the European Championships, and also the South Africa, who is always tough in the long distance, like Hungary.
There are also emerging boats like Argentina and Portugal, what sometimes they have ended up in the medallists positions.
Thank you and good luck!
Thanks!