Canoe Redux

Back in Windsor this morning for the finals of the Canoe Sprints. It's a muggy morning that feels as though could turn stormy, and the storm comes in the shape of a huge Hungarian contingent determined to blow their countrymen - and women - to glory.

We're here to support defending champion Tim Brabants in his K1 class, but more so for the four British girls in the K4. Brabants can only manage eight in his final, before  we see a German and then a Hungarian pair delight their fans with a couple of golds.

The final race of the day is the K4. It's only as the British team race past me that it hits me that this is the most impressive thing I've seen done by anyone I've actually met.

The Brits' final result is a fifth place, behind a quartet of extremely strong boats. The Polish team qualified for the final with a world best time which would have won them gold today, but finish fourth. Victory in front of a home crowd would have been sensational, but with one of the youngest crews in the race, GB have laid some exciting foundations for Rio. Huge congratulations to Louisa and the rest of her team.

Eton Success

The Duke of Wellington is famously claimed to have said that the Battle of Waterloo 'was won on the playing fields of Eton'.  While this may or may not be the case, twenty six gold medals will be won on the boating lake of Eton this summer.  Dorney Lake, host to the rowing and canoe sprint events, is, astonishingly, completely owned by the college and hired by the games this summer.  At least there's no issue over legacy here.

Getting crowds of twenty thousand people out to the Windsor venue is a massive logistical challenge, but an army of shuttle busses from local stations manage to deliver nearly a capacity crowd for the very start of the morning's racing.  They've come to see Tim Brabants, gold medal winner in Beijing, start the defence of his K1 100m title in the first heat of the day.  Brabants, now 35, took eighteen months out of the sport to pursue his career as an Accident & Emergency doctor after winning gold.  He's a youngster compared to the oldest competitor in the regatta, mind - the astonishing Josefa Idem of Italy is competing in her eighth olympics, having won a bronze medal her debut in Los Angeles in 1983 (and has qualified for the K1 final again this year)!

The powerhouses in Canoe Sprint are Hungary and Germany, but while European nations dominate alongside a few paddlers from North America and Australia, there are also representatives from countries as diverse as Samoa and Angola racing this morning.  The crowd give them great support, encouraged by the sound system which has shunned the usual Olympic soundtrack for a light helping of dance tunes and even some drum'n'bass.

Surprisingly, several racers use the 1000m event as race practice for the 200m competition, working hard for that distance and then cruising the rest of the way.  There is even one bizarre heat in which five boats compete for five qualifying spots.  Unsurprisingly, a couple take it very easy indeed.  In an Olympics where we've seen competitors disqualified from both Badminton and Athletics for taking tactical decisions not to give their full effort, I have to say I don't like this, and find it very strange that the Canoe Sprint authorities allow it to continue.

When the racing is good though, it's compelling.  The precise coordination needed by pairs and quartets to match each others timing and technique is shaded only by the balance of the 'C' class racers, who kneel in their canoe and manage to keep themselves upright while pushing back water with incredible force.

Brabants makes his final, and the British K4 team (powered on by Louisa Sawers, who I spoke to yesterday) only just miss out on automatic qualification.  They look good in their semi final though, and the crowd was delighted to see them into their final in the very last action of the day.  Massive congratulations to the girls, who race after Brabants tomorrow morning.

Inside Team GB - Louisa Sawers

Last week at Lee Valley, to the North of London, British canoeing delighted in a fantastic gold and silver in the men's C2 race. On the other side of town GB's rowers were topping their medal table with nine medals, four of which were gold. In the second week of the games the spotlight will fall on the sprint canoe team, whose sport lies somewhere between the two. I spoke to Louisa Sawers, who will race for Great Britain in the K2 and K4 boats, about the long wait for the start of competition.

'The slalom guys did an awesome job', she begins. 'We have different training programmes and train in different locations, but we know them all and they came to our apartment before we went into the opening ceremony. They are all such lovely lads and we were so happy when we found out they had got gold and silver!'. A double triumph worth celebrating.

Then there's the rowers, who have been staying at the same hotel in Windsor. 'It was so cool seeing Katherine Grainger at breakfast!' Grainger, the 36 year old team captain who won gold on Friday after three Olympic silvers is one of Louisa's sporting heroes and has had great advice to offer: 'She told us the crowds are there to support you and the number of GB flags is incredible, so use it as it will only come round once in our sporting careers!'

Louisa sat in the grandstand at Dorney on Friday, watching first hand as Grainger finally strike gold. 'It was so emotional being in the crowds at the medal ceremony. You could see how much it meant to her'. That must whet the appetite for next week? 'I can't wait to race', Louisa says. Having gone as a team to get a feel for what that home roar will really sound like, you can feel their hunger for the start line.

The K4 (a kayak, as opposed to a canoe, has racers seated and propelling the boat with a double-ended paddle, while the number denotes how many are in the boat) is Louisa's main event. With Rachel Cawthorn and Jess Walker she won European Championship bronze, and the trio are joined this year by Angela Hannah. The boat took fourth place in the last World Championships in Hungary, and missed a silver medal by less than half a second. They were the first British boat to qualify for the Olympics, and hopes are high this time round.

Since winning the World Junior Championship with Walker, Louisa has seldom raced in the two-woman event, the K2, but relishes the chance to take on a second event in London. 'It's a good opportunity to get out there and do what we do...RACE! We have nothing to lose as we have no international ranking...  watching other Team GB athlete achieve medals and some amazing results just makes you believe anything is possible'.

It's great to know our girls are so looking forward to getting out on the water, and they must be champing at the bit having been made to wait so long since the games opened last Friday night. Louisa and her team-mates were in the Olympic Stadium to witness Danny Boyle's spectacular... or some of it, at least. 'I can't believe I missed Mr Bean! I love him!' Still, the night was once-in-a-lifetime stuff. 'Everyone behind the barriers leading into stadium was British and just shouting at us wishing us good luck'. That theme of home support again. It makes a real differnce, and Louisa wants to keep hold of the feeling - 'I have now downloaded David Bowie, Heroes on iTunes as it reminds me of walking into stadium feeling massively proud to be British and seeing all the flags waving at us!'

After the ceremony the team set up camp in Oakley Court, a hotel just two miles upriver from the competition lake. No special Olympic lane is needed here - the team paddle to work. 'The facilities are brilliant. The athlete's lounge is very comfy with TV covering the action of the other sports. The food here is very good and healthy with lots of flavours'. Louisa, a true foodie, has been spending some of her free time helping out Oakley's top class pastry chef.

'Rooms have had the Team GB stamp with mugs, drinks bottles, flags, the GB lion and we got a gift - a dog tag with our individual number of when you got selected.' Hers is 238/542; number 1 is owned by the now four-time gold medalist Ben Ainslie.

For all the facilities and activites, the last week has been a long wait for the young star. While Grainger and the rest of the GB team have been competing - her housemate Nicola White scored for our table-topping hockey team in their 5-3 win over Korea - the canoers have been training, though at this point the work is down to one session a day on the water as they prepare for competition.  Sometimes there will be another session of some core work, or stretching to keep their bodies in peak condition, but the hard yards have been put in already this year, at training camps in the heat of Seville and South Africa. The aim of every session now is 'to get off the water feeling good and ready to race'.

That aim will be realised this morning, as the K4 girls start their competition at 10.39 this morning. They've been drawn in middle of the first heat next to World Champions Hungary, and will be hoping to show the Hungarians what home advantage - and years of hard work - can achieve.  Good luck to them, and the rest of team GB's canoers!