Hype and glory as clocks ticks to 2012 (From Bucks Free Press)
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Hype and glory as clocks ticks to 2012
3:38pm Thursday 9th February 2012 in Latest News By Alan Feldberg
GYM WILL FIX IT: The GB women’s kayak squad is Rachel Cawthorn, Louisa Sawers, Angela Hannah, Lani Belcher, Hayleigh Mason, Jessica Walker and Abigail Edmonds
MIDNIGHT on December 31 would have carried extra significance for elite athletes around the world – it must have been almost impossible not to feel a renewed sense of purpose when the year clicked to 2012.
GB Women’s kayaker Louisa Sawyers from Marlow said: “I was with a housemate, Nicola White, at a party in Manchester.
“She plays hockey for Great Britain and when it turned midnight we looked at each other and thought, ‘phew, this is the year’.
“It’s going to be so exciting.”
Sawyers and the kayak squad are just back from two and half weeks of warm weather training in South Africa as preparations for this summer are ramped up a notch.
She said: “It was a transition camp to take the strength and conditioning work we’ve done in the gym during the winter onto the water.
“Strength in the gym is no use if you can’t translate it to speed in the boat so it was nice to blow away a few cobwebs and get up to full speed.
“But it was 28 deg C there and I remember on the plane back the pilot said it was minus one when we landed. We didn’t want to come home.”
Apart from 16km endurance paddles, there was also a healthy sprinkling of individual sprints where the seven girls vying for six Olympic places got their first chance to climb the pecking order.
What makes it interesting is that Sawyers shares a Marlow flat with two GB team-mates, Abi Edmonds and Rachel Cawthorn, and is a long-time friend of a fourth, Flackwell Heath’s Jessica Walker.
Hayleigh Mason, Lani Belcher and Angela Hannah complete the squad.
Sawyers said: “[The cut] is always in the back of everyone’s minds, but you can’t think about it too much or let it distract you.
“We had a few high speed paddles in South Africa and there was a bit of competition there. It’s nice to see where you are and I’m happy at the moment, but I’ve just got to keep concentrating on what I’m doing.”
It’s been a change of scenery this week with early morning sessions on the Thames, just next to a frozen Dorney Lake, but two more warm-weather camps are scheduled for Seville during February and March.
GB selections take place in April in Nottingham, before two World Cups and the European Championships represent the final run in to the Games.
