POSITIVE PERFORMANCE IN THE “LONDON PREPARES” OLYMPIC KAYAKING SERIES

As part of the preparations for the 2012 London Olympic Games, the London Organising Committee staged a number of events in the various sporting disciplines comprising Flatwater kayaking. The London Prepares Series was held earlier this month on Dorney Lake in Eton which is the same venue where the Olympic Games will be held next year. Indeed, this 2.2km man-made regatta course was constructed by Eton College a number of years ago when some land was excavated for the construction of the M4 close by.

The event organisers invited the top kayaking countries to participate and Malta was lucky enough to be included in the list for the K1 200 metres event. Chris Camilleri had to compete against the likes of world champions Mark de Jonge from Canada, Ed McKeever from Great Britian and Petter Ostrom from Sweden, to mention a few.

On the first day of competition Chris successfully completed his heat in a time of 42.77secs placing fifth with the heat being was won by de Jonge (Canada) in a time of 38.30secs. In the semi-final, competition was a bit stiffer and despite Chris finishing in eight position, he qualified for the “B” final the next day. This was a fine achievement considering that he was once again provided with a boat which was too small for him and therefore, as a result of his cramped position, was not able to develop maximum power.

Not daunted by all this, Chris was determined to do his utmost the following day in the B Final. Arriving early at the venue, Chris made sure he had a very long warm-up with plenty of stretching exercises to ensure full mobility and thus minimise the effect of the severe bruising he suffered in his hips and shoulders the previous day.

At the start Chris was out like a rocket with all eight kayakers practically head to head. It was a very toughly contested B final and ultimately Chris placed in a very prestigious sixth position ahead of David Smith from Australia and Raman Piatruschenka from Belarus.

The Malta Canoe Federation is indeed very satisfied with this very positive and promising performance by Chris Camilleri in the London pre-Olympic testing event which participation was made possible also as a result of the partial financial assistence from by the Malta Olympic Committee. Since July, Camilleri has been on the 20:20 scheme made available by the Kunsill Malti ghall-Isport and the results shown to-date are indeed encouraging and augur well for Camilleri’s further advancement in 200 metres in flat water kayaking.