Following an exciting weekend of racing at the National Sprint Regatta in Nottingham (9-10 April), British Canoeing is pleased to announce the Paracanoe team selected for the 2016 World Championships. The team of five men and seven women will travel to Duisburg, Germany for the competition 17-19 May.

In addition to the World Championship medals up for grabs, Ian Marsden (K1 200m KL1) and Nick Beighton (K1200m KL2) will be targeting the top four finish required to qualify the two remaining Paralympic quota places, to ensure that Great Britain contests all six events in Rio in September.

Delighted with his performance over the weekend and ready for the challenge ahead, Ian Marsden the 2015 European Champion from Stoke-on-Trent said: “The weekend went well with everything I set out to do in my race plan. Taking the weather into account it was one of my best regatta races from start to finish.

“The aim is now to qualify the boat for Rio and then see what happens. I can’t be complacent but if I do what I did last weekend it should be fine, although you can never be 100% sure.”

The World Championships will also provide Jeanette Chippington from Maidenhead with the opportunity to defend her K1 200m KL1 World title, one which she has held since 2012 and put a marker down ahead of the sport’s inaugural Paralympic Games. Similarly, Emma Wiggs (Diseworth) will be targeting a fourth successive World title, having also put in a strong performance at the season’s opening regatta and will be joined by teammate Nicola Paterson, the 2015 World silver medallist, originally from Manchester. Anne Dickins, also a 2015 World silver medallist and Kelda Woods will both compete in the K1 200m KL3 class.

Birmingham’s Rob Oliver, the current European Champion, will also be targeting the podium in Duisburg in the K1 200m KL3, having won both his selection races, in what was the most hotly contested Paracanoe class of the April Regatta. Indeed he would love to continue his upward trajectory on the international stage, which has seen him progress steadily from 10^th, to 6^th to 4^th and then 2^nd last year, since his first World Championships in 2012.

“I feel it is all coming together now and everything I have been working on to build power is translating into water skills, so at this time of the year I couldn’t be much happier with the way things are going”, Rob said.

“I‘d like to be challenging for a medal in Duisburg and there are six of us all within half a second of each other and the top guys have all beaten and lost to each other over recent races. Whoever gets the best start is likely to win, so I have been putting an emphasis on my start and I have done more practice on this in the first two months this year than I did in the whole of last year.

“Whilst I am going there to win, I am level headed enough to realise it will be a huge challenge and the most important thing is that I am in the mix and on course for Rio.”

Northern Ireland’s Jonny Young battled his way to the second team spot in the

K1 200m KL3, winning a race-off decider with Guilford’s Tim Lodge, with only 0.25 seconds separating them in the end. Whilst it was heartbreak for Tim, Jonny was pleased to have secured his place, particularly given he only transferred a year ago from the Va’a boat, in which he is a two-time World silver medallist, in a bid to make it onto the plane to Rio.

“I am very pleased with the outcome and I certainly had to work hard for it. I didn’t feel any more pressure than I normally do going into a race, but I did have the feeling that the consequence of the outcome of the race was huge and that it could be the end of competing for selection for Rio. Given the progress I have made over the winter, it would have been too early for the journey stop and it wouldn’t have done justice to the work I have put in, or to the help I have had from all the coaches and support staff.

“Tim and I get on extremely well and we shared a room together at our training camp in Brazil and last year at the World Championships. We both know how hard each other trains and there is a lot of respect for each other, whoever wins the race. I was gutted for him as a friend and I am sure he would feel exactly the same. I was just fortunate to be on the more pleasant end of it this time.

“My aspiration is the same as everyone on the squad and we all want to win. I may be the second British boat selected but it doesn’t change where I want to be, so I will be working hard to be in top spot.”

Also travelling to Duisburg will be three athletes competing in the non-Paralympic Va’a boat classes. Martin Tweedie (VL3), is a two-time European Champion and World silver medallist from 2014, whilst Fran Bateman, a World silver medallist from 2015 in VL3 and Lizzie Tench in VL2 will represent the women.

Paracanoe Programme Manager Steve Harris said: “I am very happy that the athletes put down some good performances last weekend, allowing us to select a strong and robust team for the World Championships.

“Whilst the Worlds is not as significant this year, with the Paralympic Games the main focus for us, our priority will be to secure the last two quota places for the Games and also assess how we stand against the rest of the world’s best paddlers, with only a vital few months left before Rio.”

The full team is listed below: