I am now in China racing at the 'Good Luck Beijing' pre-Olympic regatta. This is an amazing country with very friendly people. The Olympic regatta course is brilliant and huge! I think it is probably the best course I ever seen in the World with absolute attention to detail and seemingly no expense spared. The course is very wide and even the warm up lake is almost wide enough to hold a regatta on! The wind seems to blow predominantly straight, either head or tail.

Had a great trip out earlier in the week to the Great Wall of China which was fantastic. Also got to watch the last day of the Slalom pre-Olympic event, another course which looks truly World class.

All the top K1 paddlers are here with the exception of Adam from Canada. I had a good 1000m final and managed to win with Ben Fouhy and Eirik Larsen in 2nd and 3rd respectively. I also won the 500m final in a tough race against Ken Wallace (Australia) and Sebastian Jouve (France). I have added some photos from the trip here.

Had the best race of my life so far today when I won the K1 1000m final at the World Championships! Adam Van Koeverden from Canada showed his usual awesome form and we battled it out the whole way down the race for the top spot and this time I was lucky enough to take it, with Adam a very close 2nd and Eirik Veras Larsen of Norway finishing in 3rd. Very happy with the result as I have had a really good season this year. Many thanks must go to all the support I have received from my family, friends, the GB kayak team, World Class Podium funding and my sponsors, especially Nelo (kayak) and Brasca (paddles).

 

Update on K1 500m final, I finished won the silver medal. Really close race for the podium with me finishing between the Olympic Champion over 500m, Adam van Koeverden (Can) and last years 500m World Champion, Marek Twardowski (Pol). Of course a little dissapointed to come second when so close to winning two golds, but very happy with the championships! My 500m racing has improved with each race. Now I have a week to relax and recover before heading to Beijing for the pre-Olympic test regatta, can't wait! If I was a nation, I would have finished joint 7th with Canada on the medal table. Congratulations to the rest of the GB kayak team for an excellent set of results overall, the best we've ever had as a team!

 

Check out the article on the BBC website here and the GB canoeing site here and here. Have put some pictures from the Worlds here!