CANOE/KAYAK: Naomi Flood and Jo Brigden-Jones describe their first 12 months as a K2 combination as ‘pretty raw’.
But for a raw year, it ended with a flourish, a seventh in a World Championship final in Moscow, and a sign of great things to come.
This weekend Flood and Brigden-Jones get to test if they can take their racing to a new level in 2015, racing in the first sprint World Cup in Portugal.
Brigden-Jones, a London Olympian, believes they are ready to step up.
“It’s sort of hard to tell until we start racing,” she said.
“We set out a plan at the beginning of the season to help progress the boat and we believe it will start to pay off soon. We have spent a decent amount of time in the boat this season so far but we would still like more time together to develop it.
“We were pretty raw at World Cups last year so it’s nice to come into this year’s World Cups with some confidence, and an idea of what we need to do and what we want to do.”
Flood and Brigden-Jones haven’t had the best of preparations. Their performances in the early part of this year have been hampered by illness and injury.
Brigden-Jones says that’s now behind them.
“I think it only set us back in terms of affecting the quality of our races, and not being able to race K2 at Nationals meant we missed out on an opportunity to nail our race again and step it up,” she said.
“We are both back on track and have had a solid block of training so we’re ready to go again.”
Flood and Brigden-Jones had both proven themselves as outstanding individual racers before they came together as a K2 500 combination.
They’ve both had to shelve those dreams of individual glory, at least in the short term, but neither seems to mind.
They know that if they get it right, Rio, and a podium in Rio, is well and truly within reach.
And now there’s a buzz around a new boat, the K4 500, featuring Brigden-Jones, Flood, London Olympian Alana Nicholls, and the ultra-consistent Bernadette Wallace.
They turned heads at a domestic Grand Prix meet in Australia, followed up with a solid result at the National Championships, and apparently have been training the house down since.
Which is great news for Australia, but not such good news if paddlers like Jo Brigden-Jones dream of competing in individual events again.
“I would love to have a crack at some K1 events again one day,” Brigden-Jones said.
“Unfortunately the program for World Cups and World Championships doesn’t allow me to race both team boats and K1 200m. I really enjoy the challenge of the K1 and in some ways I do miss it.
But I’m always focused on getting the best result, and so that’s why I am focusing on K2 and now the K4.
“If given the opportunity and the schedule works I will always love to take a spin down the course in the K1 200m.”
CANOE AUSTRALIA
