Fiona Pennie | Sunday 9 June 2013 - Waoh! What a day! Finally, I've won my first championship race, the first ever European Championship for a GB Kayak Woman and the first Championship win for a GB Kayak Woman in 18 years! I don't think it's quite sunk in yet!

It's been a hard 9 months since the Bratislava World Cup at the end of last season, but it all seems very much worth it now!

I had a terrible night's sleep last night....but that never seems to be an issue so I wasn't perturbed by that. Having watched the men's racing yesterday, I had a really solid plan for how I was going to get down the course.

I was super confident and knew that I was feeling sharp and speedy. The qualifying run was solid and I crossed the line 1.18 seconds in the lead. It stayed that way right until the end of the class.

I made a few changes to the plan for the final. Sitting on the start line as the last paddler to go, I was completely unaware of what had happened before me with the commentary being too far away to hear anything. A few parts of my run were faster and a few bits weren't so good.....but nothing prepared me for crossing the finish line to see "1st 91.54 -3.50". Did that really just happen??? Surely there's more people to come down right?! The reality was clear when my training partner Joe jumped into the river to greet me along with the rest of the GB Team running to the finish line to see me!

To hear the National Anthem FOR ME was something pretty special, it's been a long wait to hear that! After that it was back to business to do the team race with Beth and Lizzie. The plan was to put me at the front and instead of doing the usual crossovers, Beth was going to let me out of the upstream gate 5 before she went into it so that I could get out the way. This made it easier for Beth and Lizzie to manoeuvre around each other on their own rather than including me. We finished 24 seconds in the lead, with 5 more teams to go. As I was escorted away for drugs testing, I was trying to catch the latest updates....eventually we came away with the silver medal, the French beating us by 8 seconds.

Now the whole of the GB team is waiting in departures at Krakow airport ready for a late flight home. I'm very much ready for my own bed!

Thanks to everyone for all the messages of support. I've not managed to reply to everyone yet, but really they are much appreciated! I'm completely overwhelmed!

Now I'm back home for 5 days before leaving for Cardiff on Friday ready for the 1st World Cup of the season in 2 weeks time! Bring it on!

Links

• Facebook Page Fiona Pennie: www.facebook.com/FionaPennieK1
• Race report European Championships Canoe Slalom
• Photos: Viki Wolffhardt and Elaine Skilton