European Cup First League

I arrived in Europe last week. I spent the first few days in Bern, Switzerland with my friend and teammate Roland Widmer. Luckily, I was able to adjust to the time zone change with relatively little jet lag. I traveled to Istanbul, Turkey for my first competition last Saturday.

At the 2008 European Cup

While my technique felt great, I had some foul trouble and only managed to have one legal throw. That one throw was just a safety throw and unfortunately was not very far. Nevertheless, it was my first time competing for the Swiss National Team and I had a great time (I can be seen throwing in my Swiss uniform to the right). It was nice to be part of a team again. Our team was also very successful. They are changing the format of the European Cup next year, and our team qualified for the First League. We’ll be competing against twelve nations in that league including throwing powerhouses such as Belarus, Hungary, and Slovenia. It should be great fun.

After the competition I remained in Istanbul for this weekend’s Cezmi Or Memorial. Our previous hotel was on the outskirts of town, but since this competition will be at a different stadium I relocated closer to downtown. Over the past few days I have had a chance to see some great sites including the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, the Topokapi Palace, and several great marketplaces. The food has also been outstanding. To make things better, my training has also been going well. I ran into the Turkish national hammer coach who reminded me of a few pointers Coach Bondarchuk is always reminding me about. As a result, I improved my personal best in training by nearly a meter to 67.30 meters. There will be a great field of athletes at this weekend’s competition and I am really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, my access to the internet has been intermittent, but I’ll try to keep update this a little sooner after the meet.

Finally, I obtained a copy of the radio interview from a few weeks ago. It can be found here.