Bujumbura U18 ITF Grade 5 (week 1), Day 1

Friday 18th November 2011

It’s been a very long 30 hours since we left Heathrow at 7pm last night but the team are in good spirits and everyone worked hard today on and off the court.

After taking the train and underground across London I met up with Julia, Mia and Jack at 4.45pm at Heathrow airport. Julia has been training with Mia and me since she arrived from Florida last Saturday and Jack is from Brighton but is based at the MCTA Team Bath International High Performance Centre.

For some unknown reason we had to board the plane an hour before we were scheduled to take off but by 7pm we were all set and on our way to Nairobi. The first fight wasn’t too bad; the films were ok and we all managed to get some sleep – some more than others and some in the most uncomfortable looking positions I’ve ever seen (I have no idea how Julia was able to stand up after sleeping on the tray table for 5 hours!!).

We landed in Nairobi airport at 6.30am and despite Jack trying to knock himself out 3 times on the overhead lockers while getting off the plane we were all feeling pretty good. After a quick bite to eat we were on our next flight to Bujumbura and after 45 minutes we were in a very green looking Burundi. Everything was going quite smoothly when we got our Visas but on collecting our baggage we realised mine and Jack’s suitcases were missing. We were told it wasn’t a problem and they’d be on the next flight in a few hours time so we got in our taxi and headed the short 15 minutes journey to the hotel where we met the WIN Academy team from Bisham Abbey.

The rest of the day was good; our hotel is a little old but has everything you need including a good restaurant, the Club is a 30 metre walk from the hotel entrance and the courts were much better than in Kenya in February – we also got our bags back at midday which was a relief as Jack didn’t fancy training in his cotton tracksuit bottoms! After getting some lunch we took a taxi to the local supermarket to stock up on supplies and then at 2.30pm we all completed our physical warm up before we were on court hitting from 3.00 – 4.45pm. All three players worked hard and got to grips with the climate and the bad bounces on the court. Jack continued his problematic day; after hitting his head on the aeroplane and then in the taxi and the airline losing his bag he split his shorts warming up and then took an almighty fall on the court chasing after one of my lobs (great commitment though!). We had to stop the session at 4.45pm as it rained heavily but the players went straight into the individual fitness programmes before stretching out and returning to the hotel.

We had a good dinner at the hotel in the evening and then the players all did some school work before turning in for a good nights sleep. Jack has one more day of preparation before qualifying starts on Sunday but the girls have two days before their main draw matches commence on Monday.