When One Door Closes

Supporting International Guide Dog Day

After a long hibernation it's time to start getting the wheels of the cyber sphere to start turning again. So what's been happening?

Quick recap: Over the past two years, I have graduated with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science, as well as completing my Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health, majoring in Emergency and Disaster. I finished up work at the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. I went on a 13 week European and UK adventure (such fun!). Signed up to play professionally for a club in Athens, Greece. I had surgery on my elbow to remove a bone fragment. I relocated to Sydney for the time being. I started and almost finished a new work contract with NSW Health at Prince of Wales Hospital in Blood Bank. And finally at the end of this month I will be taking up a nomadic lifestyle and be moving from place to place over the next 15 months or so for training and competitions in preparation for 2016 Rio Olympics.

As the 2015 National league season winds down, preparations for 2015 Fina World Championships start to really ramp up. The next couple of weeks will be filled with trying to get my life all organised before heading overseas for our World Champ campaign. First off, removalist and storage... in hopes of keeping costs down over the next 15 months, I will be foregoing rent and become reliant on the kindness of friends and family to put me up the times I am actually in town, which let's face will be very limited. But this means that once my lease is up at the end of the month I will be packing most of my possessions into storage till post Olympics.

Thanks to Chatswood Toyota For hosting us!

There are no words to describe how much I dislike moving. Packing, labelling, cleaning, it's a never ending cycle, especially when the items in question are heading into long term storage. One does not want their worldly possession to be covered in mildew and mold. So soon it will be another round of packing everything up and shipping it out for safe keeping.

But it's not all bubble wrap and newspaper on the horizon, this Friday will see out first outfitting of potential Rio Olympians getting sized up for uniform. Which always has a little element of excitement surrounding it. It can be a lengthy process of putting on clothes, taking them off and putting more clothes on, and for those who aren't a fan of long shopping trips this may be a new kind of hell. There is also, however, a little burst of excitement and nerves that remind you that the Games are just around the corner and you're running out of time to prepare for what is to come. Numerous rounds of selection tournaments and camps, some of the most intense training session that will not only test you physically, but also mentally are all just around the corner. The count down has well and truly begun.

Rainbow chasing

Bring on 2014!

As the new year truly gets under away, it's time to review the past year and work out what my next step. With 2013 being a fairly successful year, silver medalists at the World Championships, graduating with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science and a 11 week Euro/UK holiday to boot. Not too shabby at all. But as January starts nearing its end it's time to start getting back into the swing of things and setting my goals for this 2014.

Already training has stepped up leaving me with some aching muscles and at times struggling through the sessions. But there is nothing like that feeling of finishing off all the reps in a gym set or pushing yourself through that last lap of the pool. Sometimes you want to just jump out of the pool and celebrate 'Rocky' style... "let's  build some hurting bombs"

 

So with training under away, our first international game (vs China) is just round the corner. The BHP Billiton aquatic super series in Perth from the 31st of Jan - 2nd of Feb at Challenge stadium. All the information can be found on the website by clicking here.

After this national camp I fly out to Greece for the second round of the Euro League with Olympiacos and then its straight back to Sydney for the first round of National League with the KFC QLD Breakers. Fingers crossed I won't have time to even feel the jet lag as it's such a quick trip. It's going to be a very busy start to February.

First Round of Euro League

Headed off to Athens to meet up with the Olympiacos team (Greece) to have a week of hard training before flying out to Hungary. Here in Hungary we spent some time going over tactics and having training games. Then it was off to Eger for the first round of Euro League.

Our first game was very important, as in order to qualify for the quarterfinals you have to win a minimum of 2 games out of the 3 games. First up was SKIF Izmailovo (Russia) the game started out reasonably close. We were able to pull away a little in the third and fourth quarter, but our mistakes kept them in the game. In the end we were able to hold them out with a 3 goal win.

Our next game was always going to be a tough one, as NGM Firenze (Italy) had also won their first game. Therefore who ever won this game was going to qualify for the next round. Our game went goal for goal for three quarters. We were able to pull away in the forth quarter to a 7-4 lead with 5 minutes to go. However, some silly mistakes and poor defence allow them to score 4 goals and take the game. This game was very disappointing as we made a lot of errors and meant that we had to win against the home team in front of their crowd.

Our third and final game vs Egri Vizilabda (Hungary) was very stressful as both teams were in the same position (1 loss, 1 win) and had to win in order to proceed to the next round. We started well with defending a number of extra men in the first few minutes and had some very strong attack. However it wasn’t until the final quarter where we pulled away and sealed the win and our ticket to the quarterfinals.

Final standings:

1.     NGM Firenze 6 pts

2.     Olympiacos SFP 6pts

3.     Egri Vizilabda 3pts

4.     SKIF Izmailovo 3pts

All Qualification Round results

What's Next?

After a silver medal at the World Championships and a much needed 10 week European and UK holiday. Upon arriving home I had a brief stint to get over the jet lag before heading back into training. There is nothing like those first few days of training where everything is a struggle and you start to wonder why you ever stopped training in the first place.

But lucky for me it only took the first week before the feel of the water started to come back and only 3 weeks before I was starting to feel like myself again. Having graduated in June and quitting my job before World Championship tour it was time for me to start making some decisions about my future.

Did I want to keep playing internationally? What sort of work did I want to get in to? Essentially I was at a crossroad and it was time for me to make some choices. I decided that after a great year playing for the Aussie Stingers I wasn’t ready to retire just yet. And since I was thinking about some postgraduate study, it made sense to keep playing while (a) I continued to enjoy it and (b) while my schedule was looking to stay very similar to what it had been; i.e. work, study, polo.

View in Athens

So with that decision made I took up an offer to play professionally overseas in the LEN trophy for a Greek club team, which was looking to be approximately a 2 month contract. I was excited to be returning back to Greece where I had played previously (after the Beijing Olympics). Arriving in Greece on Tuesday where I will be training in Athens for a week before flying to Hungary for the first round. After a week in Hungary I fly out to meet up with the Aussie Stingers in Ottawa for Canada Cup then off Holiday Cup in California. 

One of the Training Pool in Athens

It's great to be back!

Barcelona Baby

The Aussie Stingers have finally made their way to Barcelona. After a quick week of games and training in Bilbao, northern Spain, we were finally given a rest day after going nonstop for 15 days. Dining this time we visited the Guggenheim Museum, had some fantastic tapas in the 'old town', plus of course some shopping.

However this short respite did not last long, as soon enough we were back in the pool completing some last minute fitness work before heading into World Champs. Finally we were on our way to Barcelona. Or draw saw us up against New Zealand, China and South Africa in the preliminary rounds. Having played both New Zealand and China in our rounds at World League we had a fair idea of what we were up against. However that did not stop the nerves from creeping in every now and then.

The forth day of World Champs is coming to a close and we are two games in. Our first game vs New Zealand, saw us look a little rusty at first but we were able to keep our heads and come away with a solid win, 15-4. With our first game done and dusted we started our preparation on our net opponent, China. We new this one was going to be a tough one, as it would essentially decide who would top our group and there for have a better cross over to get into the top 8. 

After a rough start we were down at the first break. However we picked ourselves up and were able to pull away in the second half, with a 10-0 score line. The final score was 14-5. A great effort from all the girls, so proud of everyone. This  victory will only be short lived, as we are straight back into preparation for our next game, South Africa.

A huge thanks to all of our supporters over here in Barcelona, back in Oz and around the world. 

For game reports and info please visit the Water Polo Australia Website

 http://www.australianwaterpolo.com.au/ 

Or follow them on twitter (@WaterpoloAus) or Facebook (Water Polo Australia) 

First leg: Hungary

Our journey to the World Championships in Barcelona began on the first of July, as all interstate players made their way to Sydney for a short but intense camp. After some hard training we departed Australia for Hungary on the fourth and after numerous flights and many hours we arrived at our destination without any bags in the early hours of the morning. We awoke the next morning to sunshine and clear skies and off we went to the pool. Luckily for us the pool was a short walk from our rooms. We made do with what gear we had, although there were some burnt shoulders from lack of sunscreen and us still carrying our winter coats.

Our luggage finally arrived that afternoon and we could start settling in to our training routine. Hard sessions and some tough work was ahead in this first leg of our tour. Good food and the great location made all the hard work easier and the numerous hours of training became a thing of the past and we started to really cement some of the ground work in our preparation for the big games to come. Although the test game was a disappointing loss, there were some positives to be drawn from it. Things may not have come together yet, however the steps we are taking will see us gaining more and more momentum each day.


It's been highly entertaining getting to know some of the new girls a little better. There have been some interesting quirks popping up here or there and some entertaining conversations. With the sun at our backs we left Hungary behind and ventured off to Spain. Situated on the northern side of Spain, Bilbao is where we will set up camp for the next week with some test matches against Spanish and Italians. Our mens contingent (the Aussie Sharks) have also arrived here for some matches. It will be great to both play and watch some good games before we finally journey south to Barcelona for the main event.

Buenas noches 

Barcelona 2013

So after some very busy months finally our preparation for the Fina World Championships Barcelona, will ramp up, as we head off into camp. I have finally sat my last exams for my Bachelor of Biomedical Science degree (fingers crossed they all went well), and have finished up at my job with the Red Cross Blood Service. So now its time to really buckle down and enjoy putting in the hard yards at training. So bring it on!

This afternoon the team will meet in Sydney to begin a short and intense training camp before flying out to Hungary. It has been a difficult week trying to get ready. Firstly I have had to start planing my holiday for when World Champs finishes up (soo exicited!), secondly I have had the ordeal of trying to work out how to pack for 3 months away, numerous seasons, training and uniform gear (of which we have plenty off, loving the new gear we received from our new sponsors) and casual clothing, all without going over 20kg... a tough ask. 

A disappointing result at the World League Finals in Beijing as a result of inconsistent play saw us drop some important games in penalty shootouts. However, these loses have helped us analyze the areas we need to work on and have helped refocused our training to fix them. Plus plenty of fitness work to maintain the level we want to be at.

This upcoming tour will see us departing from Sydney to Hungary for about a week, then to Bilbao, Spain and then finally landing in Barcelona for the Fina World Championships. We have a great team heading over, combination of some new girls coming into the team and some of the girls from London Olympic returning. Full team list can be viewed on Water Polo Australia Website

Adiós