Posted by Christie Parkin on 03/06/2016
Michael Brake ~
February yielded two proud results for the North Harbour region at the National Championships. My fellow ex-Westlake school mate (Cameron Webster) and I won gold in the U22 Men's Pair. Webster and I then went on to defend our title in the Men's Premier Coxed Four, alongside fellow crew mates and Westlakers Bobby Kells, Finn Howard (2014 AIMES award recipient) and Timothy Zouch.
Soon after Nationals I had trials for the 2016 Elite team trials and succeeded in retaining my seat for the Men's Olympic Coxed Eight. Since then we have been training towards our first competition for the year - World Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland.
From there we will travel to Varese, Italy for a training block and then move onto Poznan, Poland for the World Cup III. Then it's Sursee, Switzerland for training and finally off to Rio! Exciting times!
I also thought you would be interested in knowing that just over a month ago I completed my road bike to the point where it now has enough of the essentials to be taken out for training and commuting. There is still more to be done to have a complete set for training and road racing next season, however it is has been an absolute dream to ride thus far!
I will keep you posted with our performances and activities overseas as we progress through the exciting part of the season.
Best regards,
Michael Brake
