Euro paddlers bidding for medals
Nottingham doctor Brabants is taking a well-earned sabbatical following his gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.
But now others are preparing to follow in his footsteps as the team heads off to Brandenburg, Germany, with a clutch of promising results from their emerging women's squad at two key World Cup regattas.
Women's K1 racer, Rachel Cawthorn, has been in excellent form already, with two medals added to her collection – gold and silver from the second World Cup.
Two-time Olympian Lucy Wainwright has taken bronze with team-mate Lani Belcher in WK2 race. The women's kayak 4 crew of Jess Walker, Hayleigh Mason, Rachel Cawthorn and Louisa Sawers has also consistently made finals and signs are good for the weekend.
Twenty-year-old Cawthorn is at the top of her game at the moment. She impressed at the selection regatta in May and went on to win silver in the women's K1 (kayak single) 500m and gold in the K1 1000m, at World Cup two in Poznan, Poland.
Cawthorn, with a swimming background, was recruited to canoeing through a talent identification programme and quickly progressed to the Junior Europeans within two years.
The slalom World Cup series also starts this weekend in Pau, France. The series comprises three World Cup races, one race each weekend for three consecutive weekends at different locations in Europe.
The races in France are followed by Bratislava, Slovakia, from July 4-5 and then Augsburg, Germany, from July 11-12.
Beijing Games medallist David Florence is back in the water following his recent efforts in the European Championships at Holme Pierrepont, along with fellow Nottingham-based paddler and Athens medallist Campbell Walsh.
Walsh is predicting some spectacular racing in France. He said: "The race will be held on the new Olympic standard artificial course.
"Pau is home to some of the biggest stars in canoe slalom – Tony Estanguet and Fabian Lefevre. Hopefully, this will draw large crowds of spectators and along with the difficult and exciting whitewater, it will surely be a top race.
"The team then travels Bratislava for round two. Slovakia is the major force in the canoe slalom world, so again I expect a good turn out of spectators on yet another difficult big water artificial course.
The third and final round is in Augsburg, Germany. It is a very different channel – much smaller water, but one that I love to train and race on. Augsburg is host to a World Cup event almost every season, and its always a great event."
All the preparations are being geared towards the World Championships in Seu d'Urgell, Spain from September 8-13. The GB team is:
K1 Men (kayak single): Campbell Walsh, Huw Swetnam, Richard Hounslow
K1 Women (kayak single): Lizzie Neave, Louise Donington, Fiona Pennie.
C1 Men (canoe single): David Florence, Mark Proctor, Adam Marshall
C2 Men (canoe double): Tim Baillie & Etienne Stott, David Florence & Richard Hounslow, Dan Goddard & Colin Radmore
Campbell Walsh
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