Well this is it – 2011 season is the BIG one – for the seniors, the only target in their sight lines is Olympic qualification at the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Szeged, Hungary, in August. And the Juniors have their World Championships in Brandenburg, (Ger)
It all starts at the first GB regatta of the season at the National Water Sports Centre, Nottingham, this weekend.
With the start lists already published, its great to see all of Alex Nikonorov’s 200m squad
Alex Nikonorov (centre) with Ed McKeever, Liam Heath & Jon Schofield
coming out to play– World & European Champion, Ed McKeever, European Champions Liam Heath and Jon Schofield, and relay silver medallist Ed Cox are all slated to line it up in this, the shortest of Olympic distances.
Kristian Reeves, also an integral part of the squad now, will want to flex his muscles and keep the group ‘honest’. What a squad this intelligent and shrewd Russian coach has assembled. All will surely please the crowd with their eyes-balls out, ultra fast racing. All done and dusted in under 34 seconds!
In the canoe class, its just too difficult to call – who will capture the C1 slot for the season? With the Olympic rules offering the host nation a place in the C1 1000m, MK1 1000m and WK1 500m (GB having two strong protagonists in the latter two classes, hence most likely to qualify a place by right), then it really is ‘game on’ to see who takes the prize.
Richard Jefferies will race C1 200m
Richard Jefferies will surely come out on top over the shorter 200m distance. He needs to haul himself into a finishing position of 7th at the World Championships to qualify outright for the Games in 2012 – which, based on last years World Championship results represents an improvement of around 1.77 seconds… in an event where 5 hundredths of a second separated 1st and 3rd in the K2 200m event and less than 1 second separated places 1-6 in the C1 200m final, the task ahead of Jefferies is a mighty challenge. Let’s see how close he can get.
While the senior womens team has a settled look about it, there are still slots up for grabs in the K2 500m. With Lani Belcher and Jess Walker teaming up to take on Abi Edmonds and Louisa Sawers, this is a race to mark in your programme. Rachel Cawthorn, after a difficult winter, is focusing on retaining full fitness and will not race. Thanks to her superb 2010 World Championships bronze medal, the International Panel will surely apply the ‘Mitigating circumstances’ clause within the 2011 selection policy, to ensure she races in the K1 events. Jess Walker once again will look to secure the 200m slot.
The senior mens team is taking on a slightly different shape this season. Ed Rutherford and Tom Hide get it together again in K2,
Rutherford (L) had a good 2010 season with Jon Boyton
having last raced at the Junior Europeans in 2008, just missing out on a medal. Rutherford has progressed well over the last couple of years, completely unfazed by being spring-boarded into the senior team in his first year out of juniors. Hide has finally enjoyed a period of rude health and is now back on senior start lines, where he belongs.
The mens K4, will probably see Jon Boyton replace Stuart Hastings, who decided to leave the sport this spring. We all wish Stuart well.
Tim Brabants, also fitting the ‘Mitigating Circumstances’ condition like Cawthorn, continues to enjoy the excellent training conditions of South Africa and we look forward to see him lacing up his ‘racing boots’ for the World Cup series in May.
Speaking of selection, over the last number of years, the amount of appearances by the senior team at the domestic regattas for selection purposes, has dwindled. And rightly so – what a journey the sport has made with their selection policy. Time was, not so long ago, all seniors were expected to race in every regatta. This did not give the athletes the time required to complete good blocks of training in that every 4 weeks there was another competition. A situation now banished to the cupboard labelled, HISTORY – and how it is paying dividends in terms of international performances.
Juniors – the talented Rebi Simon will continue to press Catherine Trotter and Emily Lewis for the top spot as junior girl while her brother, Marton will want to remain top pup in the Boys kayak class, though he is scheduled to race with ‘big dogs’ in the 1000m races – all good and valuable experience. It all starts at 09:45 on Saturday 16th April. I’ll be there- because I don’t want to miss a thing ………..the Great British road to London 2012 starts here.
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