Canoeing: Mold Canoe Club duo target Team GB junior selection at Bala

Mar 7 2013 by Alec Doyle, Flintshire Chronicle

TWO rising whitewater canoe stars from Flintshire are making their bid for selection to Team GB’s youth ranks.

Mold Canoe Club members Thomas Abbott, 18, from Mold Alun High School, and Thomas Walker, 16, from Castell Alun High School, will head to the National Whitewater Centre at Bala for the first of a series of three GB junior canoe slalom selection races.

Both athletes train regularly at Bala, Nottingham, Cardiff and the Olympic venue at Lee Valley in London and have already represented Wales.

Abbott has competed with the GB youth team for the last two years, gaining a silver medal in the team event at the World Championships in America in 2012.

Competing with his Canadian doubles (C2) partner Rick Booth, the pair finished fifth in the European Championships in Solkan, Slovenia and earned the highest ranked British junior international placing in 2012.

At the end of the 2012 season, Abbott finished as the highest Canadian C1 junior in the UK and this year he will go head to head against Olympian David Florence.

Walker has spent the last two years in canoe slalom and narrowly missed promotion to the Premier Division at the end of 2012.

This year he is the highest ranked Welsh kayak paddler in Division One and has secured sponsorship from Specsavers branches in Mold, Flint and Wrexham.

Racing is on both Saturday and Sunday from 10am and spectators are welcome.

For more information about paddling or canoe slalom contact Mold Canoe Club at info@moldcanoeclub.co.uk.