0.1 of a second. Sometimes that is the only thing in it.

I’ll be honest, selections are my least favorite time of year. Once you’re at worlds or whatever you’ve qualified for you’re free. It’s just you and the clock and the best you can muster. Selections are not like this. They’re the first real test of the work you put in over the winter and they are fraught with uncertainty as to whether you’ve done enough to earn a spot on the team this year.

In some sports and disciplines (particularly ones that may or may not go to the olympics) this stress and pressure can break friendships as everyone looks towards the limited team places. But I am grateful that in the UK river racing is not one of those sports.

River racing selection usually follows the same structure every year. There are a series of races (this year 2 sprints and 2 classics). In every race 1st place gets 25, 2nd gets 19, and third gets 14 with points declining exponentially-ish as you go on. You then take your 3 best results, add them up, and the people with the most points get the spots on the team. It does get a little more complicated if there is a tie, and technically the points are calculated separately for each event (e.g. World Champs, World Cups, U23s etc.), but that’s the general gist of it.

For the World Champs there are 4 spots in each category and the points system is designed to ensure the 2 best sprint paddlers and the 2 best classic paddlers get selected. By and large it does this very well by heavily weighing 1st place finishes. In fact a first place, almost guarantees a team spot. Therefore my plan for this year was simple, in order to relieve the stress of selection, I just needed to have a great weekend at the 1st set of races on my home turf in Nottingham. Ironically, the pressure was on.

The Nottingham sprint race would also double as an ECA cup. With music blaring and Ben Oakly on the mic providing commentary, it was a lively atmosphere. Unfortunately though, almost immediately, my plan started falling apart.

I’ve never been a strong sprinter but I’d thought my familiarity with Nottingham might give me a helping hand. It was not to be. Sadly a silly mistake on the first run, and a slow exit from looping pool on my second left me with a disappointing 9th and a measly 2 points. Still a good classic on Sunday could save the weekend.

It was not to be. 7th. A complete disaster. In retrospect, I’m not sure what I’d expected. I’d been pretty ill with a chest infection in the run up to the event and was midway through a course of antibiotics I’d hoped would nuke it hard enough to race. Instead I coughed and sputtered over the finish line to what felt like a crushing defeat. The previous year, I’d smashed this race securing my spot for my target events, and now it looked like I might not even make the world cups. I wandered around prize giving, feeling a bit lost and questioning whether I’d wasted the winter. Fortunately Nicky was there to give me a little pep talk. All was not lost and I could still pull it back at Grandtully.

I left for the long drive up to Scotland Wednesday evening. The plan was to sneak in a couple of days training on the Tay with Jacob prior to the Race at the weekend. I’d be lying if I said the intervening two weeks had been stress free, but the chest infection had (mostly) subsided and a few good training sessions had me feeling stronger and more optimistic about securing a world cup place, at the very least. Jacob had done significantly better at Nottingham, but with two 4th places he was riding the bubble for worlds and both of us needed good results.

My first few laps on Tully were twitchy. They always are, every time I visit. Jacob described it “like the sea”. The Tay is a big river and the waves don’t always seem to form in discernible patterns, appearing almost out of nowhere. Even the flat bits are difficult. On such a wide river, it’s easy to start second guessing yourself as to where the fast current and best lines are. But, after a couple of days of paddling I was beginning to feel at home on the river, and what was more, I was really enjoying myself.

Saturday, sprint day, rolled around and I decided to take this to heart. “You’re here because you enjoy canoeing. Stop stressing, just put down a run I could be proud of”. 7th. Okay, not the best position but I nailed the line on my second run and ended up in the mixer, only 0.51s of 4th, a much better result.

The rest of the day was spent hanging about with friends in the best  by the river, joking about the rampant local beaver population (which provided some great strava captions). I had a lovely little catch-up with Vicky over a sociable classic practice lap and in the evening we walked Jacob’s dog, before concocting the classic river racing dish: pasta & shite. All in all, it was just lovely.

Classic Day. 1st. Fueled by pesto, pasta, and anything else we’d found in the cupboards, I managed to glue together everything I’d learnt in the past few days. It’s rare that the stars all align for a race but when it does it feels fantastic. I knew it’d gone well when I crossed the finish line, but it wasn’t until I reached the car park that I got the good news. Instantly the doubts that had been building since Nottingham lifted and I was happy just knowing I could still put a good race down.

The 1st secured me a world cup spot for this year, but sadly it was not quite enough to nab the last MK1 world championship spot. Mags and I did some napkin calculations on the way home and it seems I missed out to Leon by just a measly 2 points. What is truly wild is that in that same classic Leon came 3rd and Freedie came 4th, just 0.01 seconds behind, and 5th was a meger 0.08 behind that. In a 14 minute race! Working out hypothetical points gets complicated fast, but the margins for that last spot are wild. If any of those results had been mixed around, anyone of the three of us could have nabbed the spot.

That’s been indicative of the racing across all of the selection races. I’ve not talked about it here, but the women’s racing has also been extremely close. Going into the events even reigning U23 World Champion Kerry wasn’t sure she’d secure a spot! (She did, she absolutely smashed it. But the other girls had her nervous!)

The full teams for this year have just been announced HERE. Congratulations to everyone who has earned a well deserved spot and commiserations to everyone who has narrowly missed out. While it makes for tough racing it’s great to see the standard of paddling on the rise in the UK and between the ECA cups and other races there are still plenty of opportunities for anyone and everyone to race somewhere sunny and warm this summer. Personally I’m very excited to be headed back to Macedonia and Italy for the world cups!

Finally, in the UK we are making a big effort to push all the wildwater disciplines, not just K1 so there will be a second round of selections soon to fill any missing spots. So perhaps after our ‘success’ at the Euros last year, maybe I’ll try and get to the worlds in C1, or perhaps Freddie and I could make a C2…