2016: The Plan

Well, nothing too heavy for this blog, just an update about where I am and where I'm headed now that the dust is settling after the 2015 season. We've been through our review and planning process with the management team and once that's done, we know where we stand with respect to the programme, and the programme knows what we're intending to do. There is a limbo period between the end of races and the reviews, especially if things haven't gone as planned, but fortunately 2015 was a good year, even though we fell short of our dream goal of getting to Rio. So here's the plan:

First things first, I'm off on holidays! I am leaving to Indonesia for a 5 week trip, returning to the UK early in 2016. For the first part of the holiday, I'm going to be in Java, coaching the Great Britain Men's Raft Team at the Rafting World Championships. This will probably strike a lot of people as a 'busman's holiday', but I have a good reason to be by the river on my holidays! My wife, Georgie, is in the GB women's team, so she will be out there anyway, and I thought that hanging around watching wouldn't be as interesting as getting involved and helping a bit, as well as being on holidays with my wife. After that, we will hop across to Bali for a while, and then hopefully we will go on to Borneo island and see what we can see there. It's a long holiday, but I think I earned it, need it and now is the right time. I am looking forward to a good adventure and to seeing something quite different - it should be fun!!

Once I return, Mark and I will get back to C2 training to prepare for the 2016 season. Our main aim will be the European Championships in Liptovsky (Slovakia). We have been offered a place on a two week training camp to Dubai in the back half of January, which should be just what I imagine my doctor might recommend to get my carcass back into the C2 groove (although I should say I am intending to do lots of activities and running on holidays, so I won't need a cargo plane to get me home)! After that we will be getting stuck in on Lee Valley for a while. A huge perk of being Olympic reserve is that we get to go on a camp to the new course in Rio, so we know the place should we get called up. I don't know what to expect of either Dubai or Rio, they'll be new to me and it will be a great to see something new!

After the Rio camp, there'll be a few weeks of home preparation time, with an odd trip to Liptovsky to get our eye in for the biggest race of the year. Liptovsky is a cool place, home of the Great Martikan, and I haven't been there since 2007. It's hard to know what to expect of the Euros this year. For some, it is a desperate last chance saloon to qualify for the Games, and for others it is the major focus of the season and for others it is just a race on the way to bigger things. I just know that I am looking forward to it, and as ever, my focus will just be to do my best and see what happens...

A few weeks later, the first block of World Cups starts. Three back-to-back weekends of racing should be fun, with the first race in Ivrea being another site that I've never been to. After these races, we will just have sit tight and see if we get called up, and after that who knows? That's all for another day.

All in all, I am very happy with my plan. I can say that it is pretty awesome to have so many opportunities despite missing 'The Big One'. I think it is natural to be sore for quite a while after 'failing' to get what you want (read why I don't think it is really a failure in my previous blog), but the combination of holidays, training camps, races and getting to be on the road with my teammates I think will do the trick. I love training, travelling and racing, so 2016 will be a winner! Bye for now :-)

Letting Go of Rio

I've been finding myself daydreaming about the Rio Olympics. What it would be like to go and pick up my Team GB tracksuit, getting all briefings about what you need to know. Imagining the training plans we'd make and the technical tricks we would refine. Wondering what it would be like to walk into the Olympic Stadium on a warm Brazilian evening. Imagining the thrill of ripping a run down the river on the biggest day and on the biggest stage. Thinking about how utterly insane it would be to defend the title I won with Tim in 2012.

But then I remember that it can't happen. We didn't make the Olympic boat spot at the Olympic Trials the weekend just passed. Although we will be named as the official reserve boat when the team is announced, I would consider it to be highly unlikely (and very sad for the people concerned) that for some reason we would be substituted in further down the line. So it's all just daydreaming and probably only ever will be. I'm going to have to let go of this.

Blazing into the finish. Thanks to Neil Proctor.

The Olympic Trials were as tough as I expected them to be. We recognised that we had a mountain to climb and conditions weren't especially favourable. But we decided as a crew that we wanted to race at the top of our ability regardless of the chances of success. We wanted to express all that we were and all that we had gained in the last year as a crew. We wanted to be free of ideas about what could be, or what should have been, and just be completely and utterly free to race. We had six runs over the weekend, and although our 'Road to Rio' could be ended after any one of them, we wanted to race each one for the joy and to see what we could do. That was pretty inspiring.

In the end, David and Richard's first run of the first race was enough to seal their place. Our second run charge to try and overhaul them was probably one of the finest technical runs of my life - for the first 80 or so seconds! It was lovely, we were skipping, sliding and running all the features and currents. Then, coming into the bottom drop, we got a bit wayward, spinning out before an upstream gate. We lost 1.7 seconds there and then, and we lost a little more in the final spin move, but that was what cost us the race and the chance to take it through to the next day. Of course, we would have then had to win Sunday and Monday to guarantee our nomination, but that is another daydream entirely!

Getting into the last upstream gate on the last day. Thanks to Alex Irwin.

We then fought a tooth and nail battle with Rhys Davies and Matt Lister over the next few days, both crews vying to be named as reserves. Frankly, they mostly had the better of it, their pace was a bit stronger and on Saturday we picked up a crucial penalty. On the final day, we were left needing to win and Matt and Rhys tied their colours to the mast on the first run. Our last run of the weekend was by no means beautiful (I cannot recall much, but I do remember rarely being where I'd hoped I would be), but it was effective. We were just going as fast as we could, and a bit of control was sacrificed. It wasn't deliberate, but it gave us a fast time enough time to absorb a touch and take the win. I was gutted for Matt and Rhys, they are really nice guys and I considered it to have been a good contest, both crews battled to the end, with good character and grace. There were clearly three World top-ten crews in the race and the racing was accordingly sturdy.

As for the other contests, well, they were all humdingers! I can be certain that every single athlete out there was tested, they went through their own trials getting themselves onto the startline and holding things together when things got a bit wayward (as they inevitably do in our fantastically uncontrollable sport)! A few stories really stood out for me: Lizzie Neave's last gasp 50 on the Monday which ended her road. Her pain was hard to witness, she had campaigned so well; Huw Swetnam's 'privateer' assault to get back onto the Senior Team nearly took him to Rio (that would have been a fairytale-and-a-half), demonstrating to everybody that resourcefulness and tenacity can overcome the disadvantages of not being on Lottery funding; the battle for the 3rd C1M spot between Adam Burgess and Tom Quinn, carried out on a knife edge and with some intense racing; the battle for the 3rd K1M spot between Bradley Forbes-Cryans and Tom Brady. My jaw was a bit slack watching the kayak racing, I sometimes couldn't believe what these guys were pulling off; Jasmine Royle fighting on a very tough wicket to get back into the C1W Team, and going down punching. It was emotional, keenly felt because I knew all those involved and could easily imagine the grit and spirit required.

Which brings me onto the main story of the weekend, the Olympic Team. There is no doubt in my mind that the Rio team is the strongest Olympic team ever across the four classes. All the members have won medals at top flight international races. David Florence and Richard Hounslow already have Olympic medals in their cabinets. David and Richard made their selections more assured with their Worlds results, but I have no doubt that they had to work very hard to seal the deal, even though it was done comparatively quickly. Their experience and consistency will be powerful. Fiona Pennie's battle will undoubtedly have added to her confidence as a big day performer, and she now becomes a double Olympian. I believe that Joe Clarke's exceptionally controlled run to secure the K1M place could well be a defining moment in his career, giving him the confidence to stand on the Olympic stage and race freely on the big days. Congratulations to them all, it's a very big deal and they were selected off the back of excellent performances!

So it is going to be tough watching them. There will be plenty of reminders of these trials. I can admit  that I anticipate having to deal with some painful feelings on many occasions over the next few months. But therein lies the challenge for me. I know that I can feel like this, it's all too easy.

Thanks to Peter Milsom.

But I don't want to. I want to allow myself to feel contentment in what I did and what I do, grateful for the chance to paddle at a high level for a few months longer. I don't want to feel bad about what might have been, I want to feel good about what I have already. I think it is possible, and although I will allow myself the odd Rio day dream, I will be sure to generate some alternative 2016 stories to entertain myself. I will choose to let go of Rio and grab onto the day I have.

The Road to Rio - Checkpoint Ahead

Up until recently, the 'Road to Rio' has been a bit like a motorway: Plenty of room on the road for everyone, people going about their canoeing in their own way, but all driving to that glittering goal on the horizon. By the end of the day on the 26th of October, this motorway will have turned into a single track road for the British athletes, with the Olympic Selection series being the checkpoint with only one boat allowed any further along the road. Team GB canoe slalom will have been selected!

Olympic selection is a tough process, in so many ways. It pits the athletes against each other in a very direct way. There can be only one representative for British Canoeing in each race category for Team GB. This can put relationships under strain and is a great character test, as everyone knows that everyone wants the same thing. There is an undercurrent of tension, which most people try to manage with a 'business as usual' approach. The selection races occur all at once, three days in a row. You've got to be on it, as there isn't a second chance. As usual, there is a great deal of uncertainty about what specific challenge you will face, the course set could throw up anything and when you are overlaying this onto the mighty Lee Valley course, you can be sure it is going to be tough! And then there is the struggle which I believe goes on in every athlete's mind: how can you want something so badly, yet not have your thinking clouded by this desire?

For this cycle, as in every other I have been involved with, a fascinating scene has been set. In each of the categories, I know the athletes who are contesting it very well. I've watched them training and watched them go about their business. There is a mixture of seasoned campaigners, proven performers, young hotshots and unpredictable wildcards. The results of the World Championships have also introduced some mathematics into the mix: bonus points scored with high-placed finishes at the Worlds can make it a bit easier to get through the checkpoint. On top of all this, the senior team for 2016 is also selected at this point, so the athletes will be hoping to secure a place on next year's international scene, even if they don't get their Rio ticket organised.

In C1 Men, Worlds bonus points effectively mean that only David Florence or Ryan Westley can realistically secure the Olympic place. David's consistent performance level weighing in against Ryan's uninhibited and creative style will be a sight to behold. It is a mouthwatering prospect! Most likely the result of this battle will leave only one place on the 2016 team remaining. Adam Burgess and Tom Quinn look set to battle this one out, although the occasion could bring out the best in some of the young guns making up the rest of the field.

In K1 Men, the Worlds results give no points advantage to any athlete. Richard Hounslow has withdrawn from the race (presumably to focus on C2, although I have not had the chance to ask him directly), so the form book would suggest that it is a race between Joe Clarke and Bradley Forbes-Cryans for the Olympic spot. I love watching both these athletes in full flight, they are just amazing and I hope I will get to see them in action. It has to be said that in kayak racing the margins are very tight and there are several more players capable of putting very rapid runs down, so Huw Swetnam, Tom Brady or James Bailey could end up spicing things up! As in C1, there will also be a group of up-and-coming talent waiting for their opportunity to go blazing into the fray, which should keep everyone on their toes.

The K1 Women races will be equally absorbing. Lizzie Neave has useful bonus points from the Worlds, but they are unlikely to make things really easy for her. Both Lizzie and Fiona Pennie are former Olympians, so they could be expected to know the demands of this situation and get really stuck in. Kim Woods, whose campaign at the Worlds showed great maturity and skill, will be a strong threat too. I think this race series could be one of the most fluid, as the points could be shared around several athletes in the contest, meaning that the Olympic spot might not be clinched until the very end of the series.

Copyright Neil Proctor

In C1 Women, although no Olympic spot is up for grabs, Worlds bonus points for Kim Woods, Mallory Franklin and Eilidh Gibson make the mathematics harder for anyone else to get into the 2016 team, although I am sure there will be no free lunches offered by any contenders!

So, down to the subject closest to my heart: C2. The injury I picked up a few days before the Worlds proved difficult to shift, and we were unable to train for the 3 subsequent weeks. This was certainly not in our plans, especially not at this important time of year. It has been my experience in the past that injuries and unforeseen circumstances often serve to sharpen the focus and create a certain sort of mentality that can be very useful. I would say this has been the case again. I have done a whole tonne of rehab work, and we have used our 'spare' time as a crew to work on our mental preparation. Last week we were able to build up carefully back up on the whitewater, so we have been in a position to do our final week of training before the races in a modified manner, as opposed to a compromised manner.

The Worlds results give us and Florence/Hounslow bonus points. The maths works out such that if David and Richard win one of the races, then it is impossible for any other crew to be selected as Olympic boat. This reality cannot be denied and it presents a great challenge to us, Davies/Lister and Westley/Franklin. But this is Olympic selection and this is the crazy sport of canoe slalom, so our job remains the same as it ever was: to dedicate our best efforts to putting our best canoeing down the river and seeing what shakes out of the mix. I can honestly say that I find myself in one of the most interesting situations of my career and I am fascinated by it. The mindset and conditions that we have had to create have been a great challenge and a huge experience already. In many ways, the selection series will just be the icing on the cake, as I can say with certainty that in the last few weeks, I have grown as an athlete and unearthed some deep knowledge within myself.

All in all, I feel that I can offer a guarantee that Olympic Selection will be an epic! It will be the most interesting race of the year, both to watch and to participate in. Such a rich experience awaits us, and I am determined to live it fully and gain all I can from the process. The race is open to the public and has free admission, so come along and support us all. Wish us luck and leave the rest to canoe slalom magic!

C2 athletes: An endangered species.

This weekend's World Cup race in Prague is the first leg of the 2015 World Cup tour. But it is also going to be one of a diminishing number of chances for canoe slalom fans to watch the world's best C2 athletes duelling out on the whitewater. This is because, after Rio 2016, C2 will no longer be an Olympic event. This will, in my opinion, precipitate either a rapid demise of C2 on the international circuit, or a slow death as C2 'dies on the vine'. Both scenarios will come about as the class is starved of funding from national governing bodies, because there is no case for funding a discipline that cannot return Olympic metalwork. This wouldn't be the fault of the NGBs, it is just the reality of sport funding.

So before I get ahead of myself, I'll explain a little bit about my understanding of what's going on. It may not be 100% accurate, but I think the long and short of it is. It's fair to say that there is still quite a lot of uncertainty surrounding this issue, as truly 'official' statements have not yet been made.

Essentially, to ensure canoe slalom's continued presence within the Olympic programme, we must, as a sport, commit to gender equity. This means aspiring to having equal numbers of male and female competitors, which in turn suggests that we should have equal number of men and women's medals. At the moment, there are three Olympic titles available to men and only one to women. The International Canoe Federation have therefore decided to even things up, and that means taking C2 out of the programme and adding C1W in. The rules of the Olympics mean that we cannot just create new medals (otherwise we could have the Olympic backwards-blindfolded title, as well as the backwards-blindfolded-novelty sunglasses title, which I don't think people would like to watch!). So the swap is what we have.

I am completely behind gender equity, having more women taking part and enjoying canoe slalom would be brilliant, but I'd also love more of everyone to love and participate in canoe slalom. Being in the Olympics, creating the 'shop window' for our sport and all other paddlesports is totally invaluable. With this status comes a price, we must 'toe the line' and dance to the drumbeat of the International Olympic Committee. As a sport we can never afford to take our Olympic status for granted, and we can never be complacent about it. So striving for gender equity is not only right, it is fundamentally necessary.

I just don't quite know how we have gotten to this situation. C2 is a most excellent class. Fans love C2. C2 paddlers love C2. TV loves C2. C2 is boss. Some people argue that C1W is not yet ready to 'go Olympic' and is unworthy of replacing C2. I completely disagree, athletes like Jess Fox, Kim Woods and Mallory Franklin may yet rise to be household names, and in some cases they already are. They are excellent athletes. It just saddens me that we are in an 'one or the other' scenario.

The next problem is that is we keep C2 and add C1W, we will not be gender equal. It is probably true that most countries haven't got enough women canoeists on the books to be able to field many C2W crews, so perhaps things could never be equal. So all in all, it looks pretty bad for C2. As I alluded to above, I would rather canoe slalom stayed in the Olympics without C2, than was forced out of the programme yet retained C2. But I just can't believe we are here.

So what can we do? It might all be decided already, and there may be no way to stop this from happening, but I think it is right to shout a bit. Surely there may be some way of keeping C2 and not bringing down the ire of the IOC? I want to save C2. So far, there is a 'Save C2' Facebook page, I assume that if it gets a zillion likes, it might be good for something. Next, I don't know what, but we have to try! Thanks for reading.

In the meantime, keep an eye on our Facebook page for news about this weekend's race, Prague always delivers some sparkly racing (in C2, kayak and canoe)! Thanks for reading :-)

Does being an Olympic Champion make team selection trials easier?

"Does being an Olympic Champion make team selection trials easier?" This, or something like this, was a question I was asked several times over the Selection/Easter weekend. My short answer was, "Yes and no". But here is my long answer, for anyone who might be interested.

Racing hard at Selection (photo credit Peter Milsom)

The "yes" part isn't too hard to imagine. Tim Baillie and I did race in front of an epic crowd, on an epic occasion and things worked out very well. It was intense, but we'd worked really hard to understand how that sort of situation might affect us. For me, and I think for Tim too, (but you'd have to ask him), I think the most important thing we had was the idea that we really could only do our best. At the end of the day, it is illogical to imagine that it is possible to do more than that. It's also a bit babyish to throw the toys out of the pram when you do your best and it doesn't get you to where you want to be. But I'll be honest, and say I've done that, often enough to hate doing it and not often enough to be able to guarantee that I won't do it again. I also really wanted to learn through the experience, about myself, about my sport and maybe, just maybe, something about life in general. Being totally committed to these ideas, I believe gave me the ability to just go out there and canoe.

Having raced the Olympics (and it should be said, grappling through the qualifying and selection process), does give me some confidence that these sorts of occasions are survivable, and in fact, more than that, are 'thrivable' - that is you can find an amazing place to experience your life, even if only for a short time. I'm living proof that there are sometimes happy endings to big moments like this, despite the ever present voice of impending doom and disaster in my head. That is a big help.

But this brings me onto the "no" part. The first day of 2015 Selection I woke up (admittedly after a fairly decent night's sleep) and started sweating. It wasn't hot, but my furnace was running! I sweated whilst eating my porridge (this mightn't have helped!), I sweated in my car (with the vents blowing cool), I sweated as we prepped the course. I was certainly nervous and I think I can say that I was in my Top 5 nervous moments. I had worked hard with Katie (our awesome sports psychologist) to keep the race in perspective and keep my focus on my inputs to our performance, but there was no way to deny that this was a step into the unknown. Mark and I had never been in such an intense race before, we'd never raced all 5 of the UK's top C2 crews in one sitting and we didn't really know how we would react as individuals, or as a crew. On the second day of selection, I was nervous again. The third day, guess what? I was nervous again! Despite knowing that we were guaranteed to be on the team.

But this I think brings me to why selection is so important and valuable. I honestly don't think it matters who you are, because in our sport, even the greatest athletes can be humbled by the power of whitewater. Even if you are amazing, the water can turn a perfect run into a perfect mess! So I think it's very difficult to take any result for granted, and it is hard to know that you are definitely going to 'make the team'. You can work hard to stack the probabilities your way, but that's about it, there will always be significant uncertainty. Getting selected is a test, can you perform under pressure, when you know that all you are really racing for is the chance to do it again, but on a bigger, more important stage? It probes your abilities for weaknesses, scratching away the perfect paint, and getting down to the imperfect materials underneath. And therein lies the value. Exposing these flaws is vital if you are to go on to perform on a bigger stage, it gives you the chance to see your abilities where they are, and so you then have a chance to work on them.

This is why I am so proud to be on the Great Britain Slalom Team for 2015. I have had a good look at myself, and it was sound enough. Work to do, but sound. Mark and myself chased and were chased by some excellent crews and we bonded more closely for it. And I know that every member of our team has gone through something similar. Every member of this team will now be be able to be better prepared when the next opportunity arrives to race on the awesome Lee Valley White Water Centre: The 2015 World Championships. Bring that tasty dish to the table so we can eat!!!

Race Report: Lee Valley Premier Division 14/15th March 2015

The first race of the season is always an interesting outing, dusting off your racing mindset that has been under wraps for the winter months and getting down to the business that you train for. This particular weekend was doubly interesting, as it was selection for the Junior and Under 23 teams. Our focus was on testing our racing process as thoroughly as possible, with an eye to making refinements ahead of Senior selection in three weeks time.

Our 1st Place Trophy from Saturday

Saturday's race ended very well for us, with a win. Most satisfying was the way we raced our runs, especially our second run. Our first effort was okay, but we had six seconds of penalties added to our time, and we also had some other mistakes to iron out. We worked hard to prepare a really good plan for the second run, and we attacked the run aggressively, but with composure. It was a really fun run, we were a little wild here and there, but we executed the lines well and made the improvements we had wanted. It was a great feeling to be stretching our legs and putting our skills to work. As well as winning the C2 race, we would have won the K1 Women's race too, which is sometimes a good marker, as the pace of world class K1W and C2's is often similar. So to finish Saturday in that way allowed us to say that not only had we executed our race process well, but that our race process could deliver some fast canoeing too!

As we were the first category to race, it meant we had a little time after our runs to watch the other competitors. The stand-out effort of the day was Joe Clarke's first run. It was an absolute scorcher! Joe has a really solid, composed style, but with some tasty tricks to add to the dish, and he served it up spicy on that run! It was a pleasure to watch and gave him the win that day.

Sweet glass model trophy for 2nd place on Sunday!

The next race on Sunday was another chance to get out and mix it up with the other crews. David Florence and Richard Hounslow fired an excellent run straight off the bat, and we had a bit of a tough run, again with a couple of penalty touches added, but some significant time losses too. Our largest mistake came in the 'Oval' section (the area just after the half way mark). We misread a tricky sequence, taking on a spin to try and make things a bit easier for ourselves. As it turned out, we did a bad job of it, which meant we lost a lot of time against the other crews, who all chose the alternative option. Between runs we analysed what we could and decided to change our plan. Our second run turned out very well, we sorted out most of the problems we'd had on the first runs and we were a lot faster. David and Richard did not improve, but their first run withstood our assault, and we came in second, by 1.14 seconds. Davies/Lister and Westley/Franklin also had a good go, but fell foul of the tricky course.

On Sunday, it was Mallory Franklin's turn to impress, she ripped an excellent run down to win the kayak women's race. Tom Brady won his first ever Premier Division race, something that may surprise people, as he is a very swift kayaker. It was also great to see so much quality paddling in the Junior and Under 23 selections. The standards of paddling at this level are climbing all the time worldwide, but it is hard not to imagine some of our young guns getting stuck in. It's just great to see such young athletes racing so well, against such good opposition, on such a hard river as Lee Valley. I'll have my fingers crossed when the squad goes out to Brazil for the Junior and Under 23 World Championships in Brazil in the back end of April!

As for us, we have a few more weeks of preparation to get involved with before we aim to book our place on the British Team for 2015. It's a very important race for everyone, and always delivers some drama. So I will keep you posted, bye for now!