WAIS athlete Steve Bird has put himself in a strong position to secure a senior men’s berth on the Australian canoe sprint team for 2015 after winning the K1 200m final at GP2 in Penrith last weekend.
Bird is joined in the selection frame by Alana Nicholls who impressed in the K4 500m as well as individually and his K2 200m partner Jesse Phillips after they combined to win their class at the same venue which hosted the sprint canoe events at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Bird – the K1 200m reigning National champion – entered the final on the back of comfortable heat and semi-final victories and showed no let-up in the final marking himself as the man to beat at next month’s national championships at the same venue.
“It has been a fantastic off season so I expected to go well and I am very happy,” Bird said.
He clocked an official time of 36.16 to finish 0.34 ahead of fellow Western Australian Institute of Sport paddler Brodie Holmes who remains a strong threat in the 200m events.
Less than a second separated the top seven athletes, with South Australian Callum Dunn edging fellow U23 paddler Ben McLean by 0.19 seconds for third place.
“I had a real big emphasise on trying to anticipate the start a bit better. I struggled in the semi-final to get out of the blocks as well as everyone else and I had to catch up so that was my focus really to get that out of the way and build off a good start and stay composed throughout the race.”
“The middle was very composed and the end I was just reiterating that relaxation to get to the line.”
Bird teamed up with his London Olympic co-competitor Jesse Phillips in the men’s K2 200m, with the pair showing they remain the combination to beat over the short distance.
The reigning National champions got off to a strong start before powering to victory in 32.76, 0.97 seconds ahead of fellow WAIS duo Brodie Holmes and Todd Brewer.
Phillips claimed he and Bird were “very satisfied” with the win post race.
“My development through the season has had to be fast tracked for this event so I am really happy to come away with the win and certainly more-so happy to come away with the margin that we did which is really exciting,” Phillips said.
Phillip added his shoulder was recovering well following off-season surgery.
“I certainly have rehabbed it really well. There are no limitations in the shoulder now, it is really about me getting back to full load training and that is coming along nicely, so three more weeks of good solid work at home and then back over here to do that again with a bit more margin hopefully.”
The pair’s Olympic teammate and WAIS training partner Alana Nicholls showed plenty of form across the weekend, with arguably the most eye catching performance returned in the women’s K4 500m, which saw the foursome, set the fastest ever recorded time in Australia.
In an ominous sign a year out from Rio, Nicholls partnered Jo Brigden-Jones, Naomi Flood and Bernadette Wallace in clocking 1:32.51 as they finished 2.38 seconds ahead of Amy Peters, Alyce Burnett, Jaime Roberts (WAIS) and Alyssa Bull.
The result backed up a second place performance for Nicholls in the K1 500m. With 100 metres to go, Nicholls looked set to take the win, before Flood stormed back into contention in the closing 50 metres to snatch the victory by just 0.23 seconds in 1:53.13.
Nicholls partnered WAIS athlete Jaime Roberts in the K2 500m with the duo collecting bronze (1:46.60) behind race winners Jo Brigden Jones and Naomi Flood (1:45.07).
-with CanoeingAus
