The Western Australian Institute of Sport has had a an equal best three scholarship holders selected into the national team for the 2009 Canoeing World Championships to be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada in August.
2008 Olympic bronze medal winner Lisa Russ will be joined in the K4 500m boat by WAIS training partner Alana Nicholls, who will make her world championship debut following good form in the world cup series. Reece Baker is the third WAIS member in the Australian sprint team, with the 24 year-old selected in the K4 1000m squad.
WAIS head canoeing coach Ramon Andersson has also been selected to travel to Canada where he will assist with the national women’s team. Andersson – who himself won a bronze medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics – believes the WAIS athletes have the potential to shine on the world stage.
“In the men’s K4, the boys have shown that they can compete in what is a fairly level field,” Andersson said. “It’s a young crew in the sense that it is new crew but they are a chance.”
With the World Championships being held in August, the squad will have only a couple of months to finalize preparations, with the Australian team set to spend it with training camps ahead of the biggest kayaking event of the year.
“The group have a training camp that will begin the week after next where they will get together for about two weeks before they come home and get ready to go to Canada,” Andersson said.
Alana Nicholls is set for a busy campaign, not only will she join the three existing members of the Beijing K4 500m boat (Lisa Russ, Hannah Davis and Lyndsie Fogarty) but she will also fly the flag for Australia in the non Olympic discipline K1 200m, which Andersson says suits Nicholls powerful style.
“Alana is an explosive paddler which will be beneficial for the K4 boat, but she is certainly excited about the K1 200m,” Andersson said. “Basically with Alana, the shorter the race the better.”
The 2009 World Championships will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada from August 12-16.
