By Ed McKeever, ACCA student and Team GB Olympic hopeful
It’s been a couple of months since my last blog so I’ll start with the important stuff. Last weekend at the National Canoeing Championships in Nottingham I won the K1 (kayak single) 200m race by a second (quite a long way when 200m only takes 35 seconds), taking 0.7 seconds off my own course record and more importantly sealing my nomination for Team GB at the Olympic Games at the first opportunity. This shows me that the base I built up over the winter on training camps, training 6 days a week 3-4 times a day in South Africa and Seville has put me in good stead.
There are three weeks until the first World Cup race in Poznan, Poland, followed one week later by the second World Cup race of the series in Duisburg, Germany. These events are obviously one of the secondary goals of the year but it would be nice to defend the title I won last season as World Cup series Champion and test myself against the opposition I will be racing against at the Olympics. Between now and the races there is just enough time to sharpen up a little bit, and despite me doing a good time at Nottingham at the weekend there is still plenty more to find.
From the World Cups there are four weeks until the European Championships and from then seven weeks until the Olympic final on Saturday 11 August, enough time to fit in a good block of training in order to peak at the Olympic Games.
I’m often asked in media interviews at the moment what my plans are after the Olympic Games, and in truth it is very difficult for me to look past 11 August at the moment. In the short term I’m engaged to be married and have set the date for 22 September, I’m also likely to look for some accountancy work to help me with the exams I will be sitting in December, and I have to work out which exams I will sit. At the moment I’m considering P2 – Corporate reporting, and P3 – Business Analysis, but have a while to finalise my decision. Long term I am really enjoying my canoeing at the moment and at the age of 28 it isn’t unrealistic for me to have another 4 year Olympic cycle in me so I guess I’ll have to wait and see how I feel after the Games are done.
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