Scottish paddler Campbell Walsh is turning his attentions to this year’s World Slalom Canoeing Championships in Brazil after picking up bronze at the European Championships but the 29-year-old Scot might have more to worry about than crossing the line ahead of the opposition.

“We’ve trained on the course in Brazil – there’s a crocodile in the finishing pool…but it’s only small,” he says nonchalantly.

That might be enough to put off some lesser mortals, but in a sport where mental agility and focus are key, any thoughts of creatures lurking at the end of the race will be far from the Bridge of Allan native’s mind.

Walsh grabbed the attention of the British public at the Athens Olympics in 2004 where he won a silver medal, and has gone on to be the dominant force in the men’s K1 discipline in Britain. This year alone he has won World Series gold in Australia and World Series silver in Bratislava to add to his European medal.

The recent European Championships in Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia marked a personal landmark as his bronze medal in the men’s K1 means he has won individual medals at all major championships - Europeans, Worlds and Olympics.

“That’s pretty cool. But I have yet to ever win a major race! I'll see if I can rectify that at the upcoming World Cup races,” he said.

He says he will spend five months out of 12 this year travelling and is on the road again in July for a three-race World Cup series in Prague, Ljubljana and Augsburg in preparation for the Worlds, but he admits that next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing are also part of his focus.

“It’s always at the back of my mind. All you can do is prepare the best you can. After Athens I didn’t really know how long I would continue. But it will be good to go to an Olympics as a medallist.”

Walsh, who first paddled at the age of eight on Airthery Loch, Stirling, will be competing in a testing event on the Chinese course in August, and the British team already have a training camp planned there for later in the year.

But despite the hours or preparation he puts in he says that it can all go wrong in a split second.

“Blow-out potential is very high in this sport. We don’t get to practice with the race gates in place,” he explains.

"Mental preparation and planning from the bank are key, as well as having a high enough skill level to deal with the unexpected on the course."

The mathematical physics graduate moved to Nottingham nearly ten years ago to pursue his sport at the National Watersports Centre and, while you only have to look at his saltire-emblazoned racing helmet to see he is still a proud Scot, he has never looked back.

“You don’t really have a choice in our sport. It’s not just the best facility in the UK but all the best guys are here. When I first came here I fed off that environment.”

With Scots dominating the British scene at the moment he believes that there is another generation of Scottish paddlers coming through, many from the same system and coach, John Brown of the CR Cats club, which brought him into the sport

“If there was a young Scot that wanted to succeed in this sport I would tell them to move south until they build a good facility in Scotland. The youth coming through in Scotland don’t have role models because we are all here.”

But all young British paddlers will have a role model in Walsh for some time to come as he intends to continue on to compete in London in 2012.

AW

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