Johny Akinyemi: Canoe Slalom African Championships 2015 - Sagana, Kenya
Johny competing at the London Olympics
I have just arrived back from a long 9 days in Sagana, Kenya, having raced for Nigeria in the African Canoe Slalom Championships. The water levels were high in this unspoilt remote corner of Kenya and 6 nations arrived with hopes of securing the much sought after Olympic spot. It was a case of winner takes all.
Having trained on the river in the week-long build up to the race everyone was eager for racing to start. Saturday saw the heats take place and I managed to nail a solid first run which put me in the lead and meant that I could conserve my energy on the second run. The heats finished with myself in first, the French-based Moroccan athlete in second and Success Katleho, South Africa, in third.
Racing on Sunday started at 9am before the sun got too hot. The water level had dropped a lot over night and the athletes knew we were going to have to dig deep if we were to win the champs. Because I had won the previous day I was to go down the course last in the semi-finals. The run did not go exactly to plan and I had touched three gates by the time I had gotten barely half way down the course. As a result I finished second in the final. In a way I was kind of glad to have gotten the “bad” run out of the way before the final!
It was a relatively quick turn around between the semi-final and the final. My final run was set for 12.20 and it was scorching hot waiting in the start pool in the mid-day sun. I was calm on the start line and felt really good. I really had to dig deep on my run and managed to get a fast clean run. All I needed to do was sit tight and wait for the officials to print the final results. It felt like it took hours for the results to go up. I decided to look at the bottom of the results first and work my way up. To my relief I was at the top of the results in first place meaning I had won the African Championships for the fourth time and qualified for the Olympics!
Now the really hard work starts in the build up to Rio. I would like to thank Peak UK for all the support they have given me over the years and for the awesome Custom Kit they made for the Worlds and African Champs.
