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Borrows top Aussie in C1 at Oceania Championships

 

Borrows top Aussie in C1 at Oceania Championships

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AOC
Borrows top Aussie in C1 at Oceania Championships
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CANOE/KAYAK: Twelve months after failing to make the Australian Canoe Slalom World Championships team, Penrith paddler Ian Borrows is on the verge of going to the Olympics.

26-year-old Borrows finished as the top Australian in two of the three Olympic nomination races.

Both Borrows and his closest rival, Western Australia’s Robin Jeffery, had error riddled C1 semi-finals at the Oceania Championships in Penrith, with Borrows eventually edging Jeffery by just over one second.

Both paddlers had two gate touches, attracting four seconds in penalties.

As a ten-year-old Borrows travelled down from the Blue Mountains to watch the slalom at the Sydney Olympics, and decided he’d like to have a try.

Borrows selection still has to be ratified by the Australian Olympic Committee, but to be nominated is a dramatic turnaround for the 26-year-old from the disappointment of 2015.

“Missing out on the worlds team last year, and then training hard all this year, it’s a dream,” an elated Borrows said.

“I just tried to put the work in, and it’s now paid off. I jut hope when the time comes I can do Australia proud and do the best I can.”

Borrows didn’t make the final, but said it was hard to be disappointed.

“It wasn’t the way I wanted to win, but a win is a win at the end of the day,” he said.

“I thought it was fast, but I knew I’d had a couple of gate touches. It’s probably the happiest I’ve been without making a final.”

Borrows has to combine training and competition with a full time tradesman’s job, but said the Olympic dream kept him focused.

“I work for my dad, so it’s quite good in that respect, he sometimes gives me some days off and lets me have a late start,” he said.

“But some days it’s pretty hard getting up at 4am, going to work in the city, and then coming back and trying to squeeze in a couple of sessions in the afternoon to keep up with what the other boys are doing.

“We are a big group and we all stay together, and I knew if I wasn’t training they would be. So it made me get to those training sessions.”

ROSS SOLLY FOR CANOEING AUSTRALIA

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