We've had a thrill on the second day of the Belgian competition.
We had some though opponents ahead of us, TNT, WKV 2, The Sharks and WKV 1 (nrs 3, 5, 1 and 2 from Belgium).
Since we were 4th last year, predictions were 3 losses and a win. The day also started off that way, we lost 12 - 0 vs. TNT and won 4 - 0 vs. WKV 2.
But none would have thought we would actually surprise big time that day. The game against The Sharks started surrealistic, we came 3 points ahead and at half time the scoreboard showed 3 - 1. Amazing. The game was a thriller, but we managed to win it with 6 - 5 !!! The first time in Gekko history, we won from The Sharks.
The day wasn't over yet... Versus WKV 1 we did even better. We won 4 - 1. Amazing! never happened before either ...
With the 2 wins, we are now ranked 1st in the Belgian competition.
Unfortunately, with the screwed up playing system (see this post) points don't count towards the final standing. We'll have to do it all over again ...
I received an e-mail from the canoe polo organising committee about the World Championships 2008.
They take place in Canada, and it's no surprise cost to get there will be very high. It's not only the flight, though that's the biggest chunk, but also lodging, food and getting the kayak there.
Anyways, the mail was a call to anyone who is interested in going to deposit 1000 by the end of November and an extra 800 some time later. Of course, that amount would be lowered by initiatives like selling wine, but it's still a lot of money.
Kim (my girlfriend) will probably be selected in the women's team, and I'll probably join her if we can go for a longer period than just the week. I just wonder how many won't be able to go because of the costs ...
The second day of the Belgian canoepolo championship was played yesterday.
We kept saying it would happen some day, but yesterday, it actually happened: Turnhout defeated The Sharks in a very tence game. And, like this wasn't enough, they also beat Veurne in another great game. As a result, they are listed first at the moment, way to go guys! The bad news? because of this new and amazing system (read this post) they will have to do it all again to profit from it in the final rankings.
And then for some Gekko thrill. The first team did what they had to do, won from Mol, Charleroi and Veurne 2, lost from Veurne 1. Gekko 1 ended 4th, and plays first division next round. No suprises there.
Then our 2nd and 3rd team. They fought for what they are worth, and it payed off. Both Gekko 2 and Gekko 3 managed to end top 4 (1st & 4th to be exact) and thus play 2nd division next round. Congratz!
Gekko 4 managed to slip into top 3 and play 3rd division next round. Gekko 5 plays 4th division together with Gekko 6, who managed to end 1st in 4th division in the first round.
They did it again ... The canoepolo competition is mixed up again.
Last year (beginning of this season) they decided to go with a very weird playing system.
The old system:
3 divisions, each team playing a home and away game against all other teams in the same division.
Th first promotes to a higher division, the last one drops a division.
They seemed to have a "ping pong" problem. Where 1 year, a team promotes to first division, and the next, they drop back to second. Even though this only happened ONCE in the last couple of years, it needed a change.
A normal rule would have been to have extra games, for example let the last 2 of division 1 and the first 2 of division 2 play 3 games each. The first 2 would then be in 1st division. This is a fair system, since there will no longer be a "ping pong" effect if the teams in 1st are clearly better. And 2 teams have a chance to qualify to go to first div.
Instead of this simple, yet powerful system, they came up with the following.
There are now 4 divisions, each containing up to 8 teams. After 1 game against every team, the teams are ranked according to points.
Then, the teams are divided into 5 divisions, each containing about 6 teams. (so the first 6 teams in div 1 end up in div 1, the last 2 end up in div 2, the first 4 of div 2 end up in div 2, and so on).
Those divisions play 1 game to decide who becomes champ in that division.
The next year, things go back to 4 divisions (8 teams) and t starts all over again.
If you don't get the system, read it again, I didn't get it either at first. It's complicated.
If you do get it, here are the arguments provided in favor of the system.
It's expandable (adding or subtracting teams is easily done), it gives an opportunity to lower divisions to play against some of the weaker teams of the division above them (at least for 1 game). And that's about it, if you have some more, feel free to tell me.
Now here are some disadvantages. All these are from my perspective, and thus personal, so don't get pissed if you don't agree. My personal view is from GEKKO 1, which ended 4th in the first division.
The first, and biggest in my opinion, is if you qualify to play in the first division for the second round, you only get 1 chance against every team. if you happen to tie, or loose, you will never play that team again. All points from the previous round are reset to 0, so that 1 game is what counts. An example: WKV 2 usually ends 5th, right behind us. However, there was a year where we fucked up and lost against them, however, we had a second game against them later that year and wiped them away. We tied in points, but we scored alot more goals than them, so ended 4th anyways. This is a fair and balanced system.
The second ...
Who'll be champion in second division?
Will that be the one who ends first after the second round (so, most likely the one who ended 7th in the first round). That's a bit weird, they didn't even start the season in second division, yet they end up being champs in it ???
No more chance for a second division team to be champ unless they are not only stronger than the last one in Div 1, but also the 7th of Div 1. Hah.
The third ...
Say you end 7th in 1st division. That's pretty ok, you managed to beat 1 team, or won due to more scored goals or whatever.
Now as a present, you get to play your next 5 matches in div 2, 1 against the same team you just beat (this is normal behaviour) and 4 games against division 2 teams ... ??? Instead of a system making the level of play go up, this will make the level of play for those 4 games go down.
As a personal thought, once we managed to win even only 1 game in 1st division, I wanted to play games against better teams, not worse teams.
Since there is also a very wide gap between level of play in 1st and 2nd division, the games will most likely end in big numbers. Unless a team can beat them, at which point they would be champ in the old system anyways, and no "ping pong" would have occured.
This is a really annoying topic, since noone will be happy whatever system you play. But I think this is by far a worse system than the old one with play-offs.
Anyways, I was saying at the beginning of the post that they did it again, so all this text was just an introduction.
This time it's the European Federation who is screwing up.
The Belgian competition takes place on September the 30th, in Gent btw (feel free to come over ;-)). But a couple of weeks ago, the ECA (European Federation) decided to hold the European Club Championships on this date. 2 months before the event, they claim the date ... hah.
The consequence is that 1 (possibly 2) teams will not be able to join the Belgian competition (normally The Sharks & WKV 1).
Now that is really annoying ... You can't just give all games against these teams a 0-5 forfait result, that would be really bad. Not only is it rather clear The Sharks and WKV 1 have little to fear from the other teams (maybe TNT, but that's the only team), but when you forfait them, they'd end last, removing any chance to go to the Club Champs again next year.
The Belgian Federation first tried to move the entire Belgian competition to another date. This was deemed impossible. Not only was the venue booked, the other 25 teams won't just reschedule for 2 teams.
The second solution was to play a seperate competition between The Sharks, WKV 1 and TNT and decide the Top 3 there. Other teams apparently didn't like it. I agree, it's a bit unfair to not even play them, even if you know they'll win.
The current, an probably final, solution was to play division 2 to 5 (yes 5, see previous explanation) on September the 30th, and play the 1st division on October the 14th. Oh boy. 2 times the orginisation hassle. 2 times the transportation. But this seems to be the best solution anyways.
Little side joke, about the first thing they said: "Oh if you will be there on the 30th anyways, we can use you as a referee to lighten the schedule" ... haha. I don't like refing in 3th or lower divisions. Nor do I plan to be there to ref, i'll help in the organisation, I'll take pictures, I'll shout for victory, but I'm not planning to ref. I'll have to ref more than enough on October the 14th ...
This weekend, the London international tournament took place. This year, GEKKO decided to join in on the fun and go with a team of 7 players to represent the club.
The tournament started in a mess with heavy rain when driving in France, but the sky cleared when we were taking the boat and everything was dry in Britain. We put up our tents and went to sleep, as it was already quite late (even with the gained hour from travelling from the mainland to Great Britain).
The next day, our first match was against Odd Socks. We never played against them before and didn't quite know what to expect, but the results show enough. Something like 8 to 1 in our favor when the final whiste was blown.
Next, probably the most difficult match scheduled for the day, was Blakedown.
We fought hard and till the end, and finally, with a score of 3 to 2, we were able to control the ball for the last 4 minutes of the game and victory was ours.
The final match for the day was against FOA (Friends of Allonby?) and was easily won with 7 to 1 I think.
All the games won made us end 1ste in our group. The next day we came out against the second of another group, which was AKKC Antwerp (again, we seem to have to play aainst them on every tournament ;-)). The first match, at 7h30 in the morning, is not exactly our strongest point. The result was a hard match which ended in our favor (3-2), again, we controlled the ball at the end of the game, we seem to be getting better at doing just that.
Having won that game, we qualified for the semi-finals, against Keistad B. They have some failry good shooters but lack the tactics to break our line defense. The result of 4 - 2 (in our favor) was maintained throughout the second half, where Keistad was forced to play 5 out on us. We were, again, able to hold on the ball...
The result: GEKKO in the finals of division 2 !!!
Never happened before ...
We watched the other semi-final to get to know our future opponent, Avon won against the Sicillian men, so an English team was soon to be our opponent.
Avon started the match with alot of pressure on our defense, obviously with the danger on getting scored against on fast breaks, we were able to do that once, 1 - 0 and pressure rising ...
A shot from the second line with a block setup on our defense resulted in 1 - 1 on the scoreboard. Pressure was maintained throughout the first half (on both sides) and the whistle was blown at 2 - 2 after 1 time.
No change in tactics was done for the second half aside for the increased activity when defending. Incoming attackers were hit much faster and that resulted in 2 nice goals for GEKKO when they lost the ball under pressure ...
With only 5 or 6 minutes to go, Avon went 5 out on us and met our solid ball keeping skills. We even scored once with a very long assist and clean goal ...
5 - 2 was the fantastic score of a nice game in second division ...
Again ... Veni, Vidi, Vici ...
For the first time ever, GEKKO played and won a final in second division internationaly.
Just for reference, the team at hand was Sebastiaan, Johan, Bart, Wouter, Pieter , Tim and myself ...
Perfect organisation, semi good weather and very nice matches ...
I'm talking about the international tournament @ Veurne past weekend.
We ended 8th out of 12 teams, which isn't bad at all, considering we only lost 3 games with the smallest difference (1 goal), drawed one and won 2.
We also got over our "We can't win from Antwerp" dissease, since we played 9-2 against them.
One of the best matches I think was against Schwedt Stuttgart and Montigny, which we both lost (3-4 and 4-5 golden goal :s).
Only some minor issues, for example against West Lothian Z, from wich we won with 3-0, but it wasn't very convincing.
To summarize, great tournament, great gameplay. See you all next year.
We have been invited to participate in a training session @ TNT in Turnhout.
So this sunday, we'll be heading there. Unfortunatly, I'm still paddling a plastic Gecko, but hey, anything works for me ...
This weekend, the international tournament of Charleroi was held at the ADEPS facility in Seneffe.
Gekko competed in 2nd division, to a result of 11th out of 16 teams.
It was much fun, extremely good weather, and great teams.
Especially the game against Martlet Cougars, where I ended up scoring 4 goals in one half, and we won with 4 against 3...
GEKKO is official candidate to organise the European canoepolo championships in 2009. Nothing is set for sure of course, but the KBKV (kayak organisation in Belgium) is fully supporting us, not financially, but that was to be expected.
If we are selected as the hosting club, we'll need to have upto 5 pitches, accomodation to house 50 teams with their coaches and officials, officials to referee the match and many more things.
One of the other things we need are obviously sponsor.
If you happen to be part of a company, or own one, and see this as a great oportunity to expand your business, feel free to contact me or leave a message here.
This weekend was the first international canoepolo tournament from this seasons.
The first, as always cold and rainy, has place in Helmond, The Netherlands. We once again joined forces with Lokeren to try and beat the other Belgian, Dutch, German and British teams.
Our start was hindered by two strong teams in our poule, Trekvogels C and DJK Ruhrwacht, who ended first and second in the end. We lost with 4-3 from both of them. This got us a third place in the poule rankings, and thus playing for place 5 to 8.
The first game we came out against Meridian X, and lost 2-1 in the last 5 seconds of the 2nd extra time. The next game we won with 3-2 from Windhappers A, which got us our final result of 7th place.
For 4 days, the kayak federation of Luxembourg organised kayak trips there, all from the central point of the town Kautenbach.
The first day we went to scout the Sūre, for kayakclub GEKKO, it was just me and my mother in our Topo-Duo. I must still have been sleeping because at the first (or maybe second) drop, we tipped over unexpectedly. My mother eventually had to swim, I eskimo-rolled the kayak and went ashore (half sinking).
The saturday was something rather tiresome. We went to paddle the Sūre above the lake of euh ... something (rather upstream from the Sūre). Lots of paddling, very little current.
The sunday we went on the Clerf. Probably the most interesting river of the 3 (Sūre, Wiltz, Clerf) with a whopping 9 paddlers from GEKKO. About halfway we lost one of our canoe'ers to a tree, we had to pull free the boat with the help of a friendly Dutchman (he was carrying a saw in his boat, very useful).
The last day, the amount of GEKKO'ers was reduced to 2 boats (4 people), and on the program was the Clerf (very short), the Wiltz (Kautenbach -> Sūre) and the Sūre (to Michelau). Not even halfway the women (my mother and Erics wife, in the other boat) decide to give up for the day and let the real man (hmmm) paddle the rest of the trip. With me and Eric in 1 kayak, the brute muscle power got us a major speed increase. We smoked the paddlers from Luxembourg in our tail, and also passed some germans while they were eating. We arrived quite early at Michelau.
From there, it was back to the camping and packing for me.
See you next year .. probably.
It was freezing cold out there, and yet, some lunatics (also known as kayakers) gathered to train for the national team.
The trainer is a big fan of running, and this time, that was really obvious. We did 2 rounds of the Blaarmeersen (the local recreation area) and then some exercises (times andcounted).
Apparently it was too cold to go on the water, and at noon, the trainer decided to call it a day (I didn't mind at all, as I was really tired from all the running :p).
Well, we've had another training for the national team canoepolo ... As always, very tiresome and stiffening for the muscles. And this time, speaking of a bad timing, the monday after the training, we ahd another one. GEKKO's very first indoor (dry) training. Obviously, I was still tired from the first, but the second training was not as hard as the first ;)
This weekend (sunday actually) the training of the national team canoe polo took place in Gent.
Bart and I joined from Gekko, making the total of 12 persons participating.
The day started @ the Blaarmeersen with warm-up and jogging. Then some exercises with the ball (but without the kayak).
After lunch we continued, finally on the water, with sprint and ball exercises.
I can safely say I felt tired at the end of the day.
This weekend, the canoe polo season really starts. The battle for the Belgian championship is starting at exactly 10 o'clock on Sunday.
Competing in first class are (in my opinion in order of strength):
WK Veurne
TNT Turnhout
De Paddel Dikkebus
KC Charleroi <- Not sure about ranking them third or forth :-)
IRWV Ieper
WK Veurne 2
Gekko Gent
AKKC Antwerpen
It proves to be a hard year, and hopefully lots of fun.
Charleroi - International canoe polo tournament 2004
This weekend, the internation canoe polo tournament Charleroi 2004 is taking place in Seneffe, Belgium. GEKKO will be competing there against several teams, including the Great Britain Under 21 national team, Pom Reunion (a French team) and Ruhrwacht A (a German team).
The first international tournament of the season is coming up.
This weekend we will be battling in Helmond in first division (they have a honor division in the Netherlands, so that's actually second division).
Last year, we managed to end fourth out of a total of 10 teams, which isn't bad at all. This year, 12 teams entered the first division.
Tomorrow the referee exam for kayakpolo takes place in Gent. I've read most of the chapter we had to, and know some by hard ... Still wondering if that's enogh.
Well, it's only fair to post an update. While 8 people 2 weeks ago was alot, the record couldn't be held for very long. This week, 11 persons showed up for the monday training.
This must be the most people ever to come to GEKKO to start a winter training in the dark.
This monday we had 8 people showing up for paddling the "Watersportbaan" around 19h00. Considering we started this training with just 2 persons, it's not to bad.
2 persons from WK Veurne joined us, 1 from GEKKO Lokeren, 3 from GEKKO Gusb (or just GEKKO I guess) and 2 from GEKKO (Bart and me).
If you happen to be around Gent with a kayak, feel free to join us next monday, 19h00.
You could call it the 'freeze off your hands' training, but it's still popular at this time of the year.
Last sunday 11 persons showed up to do some canoepolo, throw some balls and make some goals. The youth is well presented in Lokeren, which is a good sign for the future.
The winter is ready to be unleashed here, so the season of kayak is coming to its end.
And what better way is there to maintain condition and power levels than to go to a fitness centre. Well, that's exactly what I did yesterday. The Passage is the name of the centre, close to the kayakclub and my home, which is really convenient.
It has been fun again.
It's time for some kayak updates.
We competed in the Belgian cup and did quite well. Our final ranking was 4th, out of 15 teams. That's not bad at all. Leading us were DP A, WKV 1 and TNT 1, they also happen to be the teams leading us in the Belgian competition.
And speaking of that. Yesterday was the 3rd day of the competition.
In Belgium, we seem to attract problems in 1st class. At the Belgian cup DP A and WKV 1 had a little fight and as a result were supposed to be suspended for the coming competition. But since a week is not enough to start an official procedure, they decided to suspend the entire first division to a later date and only tell us about that when we were already present.
That means getting up at 06:00, driving to the competition all for nothing. We played 2 friendly games with other 1st division teams and went home.
GEKKO is proud to organise it's kayakpolo tournament this weekend.
It will be held from 10:00 to 17:00 on the 'Watersportbaan', Yachtdreef 1, 9000 Gent. Be sure to come and cheer for us when you are in the neighbourhood.
It has been a while sice I posted some kayak news. I have alot ofit now ...
We played 2 international tournaments in August, the first being at veurne, the second Ieper.
The tournament of Veurne has only been organised once, and is rather small compared to the others, however, very enjoying. We played well and ended 4th in 2nd division, that's out of 10 teams, leaving 2 French and 1 English team in front of us.
The Ieper tournament already has a very good reputation, with 53 teams this year, it's one of the biggest tournaments in Belgium.
Our division had 28 teams fighting for the number 1 position. With some heavy matches on the first day, and better play on the second, we ended 17th, which isn't bad at all.
Some future news too. The second day of the Belgian competition is this weekend. Let's hope we can perform well there.
Also the Belgian cup is coming nearer, the weekend after the competition, on sunday. Saturday being the warmup for us at our yearly tournament at Gent.
If you happen to be around Charleroi this weekend you have plenty of choices to supporter for your favarite sport.
For kayakpolo lovers, there is the international tournament, as mentioned before (Centre Adeps La Marlette ą Seneffe).
But also, the finals rollerblade hockey in 1st division.
Coincidence or not, ... But I play at the first, and my sister plays at the second. Her team, The Salty Green Dogs from Eeklo, can use all support they can get.
I'll probably be hanging around there too for a while (it's not very far from where I am). Centre Adeps, Allée des sports 12, Loverval.
Last saturday, the kayakpolo referees had a meeting about the latest rule changes. I'm not a referee, but I was asked to serve behind the bar, so I catched some information.
Later on (today to be exact) we got a nice summary by mail.
No big changes happened, just some clarifications and the fact that the paddle of the keeper does not have to be up anymore before the ref can call a keeper's fault.
On the same subject, ... Next weekend is the international tournament of Charleroi. We'll be defending the club's color in second division (we actually get to play against the Britain national team under 21, which promises to ba a hard match).
The first kayakpolo training on the 'Blaarmeersen' for this year is a wrap.
A moderate amount of people showed up in the very nice weather. The wednesday training lasted for about 2 hours and wasn't to bad, unfortunatly, the thursday training was on the same day as a meeting, so I couldn't be there.
This weekend, there is still a training in Lokeren, next weekend is the international tournament of Charleroi and the week after that is the first day of the Belgian competition.
Past weekend we were in Helmond (Eindhooven, Holland) for their international kayakpolo tournament.
We arrived on Saturday with 6 players, all below 25 years of age giving us a large potential. Being in first class (that would be the same as the Belgian second class) we had to compete against 2 Belgian teams (They ended 9th and 10th out of 10), 1 german team (they finished first) and 3 dutch teams (2nd, 3rd and 7th). In the end, we occupied place 4th, which is really good.
In the main class, Deventer won the tournament (as it did already a couple of times).
Sunday was the first training for the Belgian national team this week.
The weather was fairly good and so was the training. I feel kinda tired now, so I guess it was sufficiant ...
Tomorrow the technical commitee kayakpolo is meeting in Gent.
That normally wouldn't concern me, but it seems there are (once more) some problems rising. Last year, during the Belgian Cup, our referee was given a push by someone from 'De Paddel', at which point the commitee decided to suspend that person for some matches.
Now, suddenly and without reason, they decided to revoke that decision without any new elements and even without telling us.
Ofcourse we pressed charges, and well, that's what I have to be there for.
Last weekend was the kayakpolo tournament at Mol.
Our junior team didn't have enough members to compete, so we mixed a little bit and formed 2 mixed teams.
The first one, in which I was playing, had 6 players all under 23, which was really cool. We played against TNT (lost 12 to 1), KNRS (won, no idea how much), Mokka (the home team, we won) and AKKC (lost 2 to 1). As a result we ended third in the rankings.
Our second team tried to copy us and ended third too, which was really good with 3 junior players.
The season is starting.
This sunday, we will compete at Mol with 2 kayakpolo teams (1 senior, 1 junior).
The sunday after that (30th of March) there is a training for the Belgian national team, 4 of us will go have a look there.
Then, 5th and 6th April, we compete in Helmond (Netherlands) against some dutch teams and some other Belgian teams.
I was still sleeping from yesterday when my cellular phone beeped. "Ignore it ... " said my brain. And so I did.
But, around lunch time, i woke up for real and checked the phone. Bart kinda reminded me it was kayakpolo training in Lokeren, and since the weather was not to bad, I decided to go.
6 people showed up at the start, the seventh one coming a little late.
They had a new ball. A training ball of 1.5kg, not bad for power training, but in my opinion, not very good for the technical side of the training. For example, catching with 1 hand is not very advisable with the heavy ball. Nor is stopping it with your paddle (you might end up having 2 of them).
Training was nice, we continued till 16:20, and then stood under the shower for like 15 minutes (can you believe it's cold nowadays ?).
It's winter, or closeto it. And it's cold, but we knew that.
Unfortunatly, that's the only time we can go kayak in the Ardens, and even then ...
We started of on the Wamme, way to little water. So it was more shaking and walking than kayaking.
because the first wasn't very good, we did 2 rounds in the Lhomme, broader and more water. The first descent, I was in a boat together with my mother, we had fun. The second run I went alone in my playboat, some rodeo, and the day was good again ...
I have to go sleep now.
Tomorrow we meet at 7:15 in the morning to go kayaking in the Ardens. That's very early, I have to get at least about 6 hours of sleep.
But, it will be worth it. Lots of newbies are coming along, so they'll probably swim more than kayak.
I don't think I'm supposed to post it here yet.
But well, ... My kayakclub, REWS Gent, is moving.
We will be moving to a nice location next to the 'Watersportbaan', which roughly translates to watersportslane, but you could figure that out yourself.
There will be room for at least 200 kayaks instead of the current 70. Should be nice.
We need it too, because we have grown to 178 members this year. Never happened before.
May it be done fast ...
