LOCAL canoeist, Alex Edwards, has won the ICF Canoe Freestyle World Cup.
Alex won the title in the men’s kayak squirt category, in Plattling, Germany. Squirt boating is a form of whitewater kayaking which uses a thin kayak that hardly floats, allowing the paddler to fully submerge under the water.
Squirt kayaks are designed to use both surface and underwater currents to manoeuvre in the water. Competitors get one minute to do the most complex moves they can, using the water features.
“I won gold in the first world cup round, combined with a silver medal in the second world cup round, which means I have won the overall world cup title,” explains Alex. “I’m really pleased to have come out on top in what has been a challenging and tight week of competition.
“In the first round, I was really happy with my performance and pleased that it was good enough to take the win and the gold medal. The standard of competition at this event has been very high this year; the top five made it through from preliminaries to the final and even though that was a tight battle, in the final, any one of the five paddlers could have taken the win.
“There had been lots of rain over the last week, so the river levels were changing day to day, which made it difficult to have a plan for the competition.”
Last year, Alex competed in the ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships in Columbus, Georgia, in the USA, where he came in at sixth place.
“I was very disappointed last year as it felt my performance wasn’t as good as it could have been, so to come back this year with a much better performance, higher points and a medal was very satisfying!” he said.
“I try to do some kind of training every day. In the couple of months before the event, I will be in my boat once a day, as well as either a gym session or an aerobic session on my bike. My training hasn’t altered for this year, I just came up with a better plan for this event.
“I do what I do because I enjoy it and find time to fit training in around working full time.”
