Grand Canyon University Athletics
South Africa, Day 3
8/7/2010 3:09:54 PM | Dominique Daniels - BMX
Good day folks! Dominique Daniels here again letting you know what interesting things are going on with my trip to the South Africa.
The morning breakfast was typical but the staff was nice. I didn’t get caught with liver and I had a nice breakfast beef with eggs. Some of the female staff looked at me and wondered why I had turned down the Prince’s offer to be his bride. Evidently 17 here is the perfect marriage age as well. But again I had confirmed that I had to decline. Some of the other BMXers upon hearing the news, also got in on the “Ask-Dom-repeatedly-why-she-didn’t-say-yes-game”, but after explaining myself for the 100th time I was excited to get onto the track and away from the infinite questions.
I had some trouble racing and competing at the level that I am used to and expected myself to compete at today. After the dust had settled, at the end of the day, with the best of my abilities out of more than 41 countries, but with some slight trouble, I’d managed to come away with a World 10 plate after crashing and getting hurt. But the good thing was, I was still able to get back in competition and show the world of BMX what I was capable of doing. And being World 10 out of the entire world was better than not finishing. But this means I will definitely have to work harder for the next international competition.
After the race was over a coach approached me from another country that offered to help me train with more top athletes in his country, so I could gain some more experience in the international arena. His country happened to the best country for female BMXers in the world. The one strength he said that I needed help on was “Supercross” racing. I had always been used to racing on a typical BMX track, but Supercross had a few things that I had yet to learn. I agreed that I did need some more training and since I had already been to and trained out of the United States, I thought that the timing was perfect. Learning Supercross and how to compete in it is now one of my top things I need to do and learn. Hopefully when I get back home, I can talk to the Athletic Director, my teachers, and coaches in the US so that we can adjust my schedule so that I can still complete my work and be better prepared for the 2012 Olympics...