Canoeing: Neave starts the medal collection at the European Championships

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Lizzie Neave (pictured) claimed the bronze medal in the women’s kayak final at the 2011 Canoe Slalom European Championships in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain - in what was one of the tightest fought women’s finals ever.

With fond memories of racing in La Seu d’Urgell following her bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships, Lizzie Neave was last on the start line in the women’s kayak final, with high hopes of paddling away with a medal.

Having put in a stunning performance in her semi-final seeing her qualify as the favourite into the final, the pressure was on. With spectacularly tight racing from the competitors before her, Neave knew she had to pull out all the stops in order to be on the podium.

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With some early mistakes, Neave showed true determination and fighting spririt keeping her in the running at the half way split. Digging deep through the last part of the course, with every ounce of energy going through her blades, she crossed the finish line in a time of 106.76 seconds sliding into 3^rd place, behind the reigning European Champion Jana Dukatova from Slovakia and Claudia Baer from Germany.

“It is one of my favourite courses,” Lizzie said, “I have found the course this weekend really physical but have loved racing. My run didn’t get off to a very good start and I didn’t think I had done enough to medal, but when I crossed the line and saw I was third I was really happy.”

Team mate Laura Blakeman also put in a strong performance in the final, but didn’t quite have the podium pace, finishing in 7^th place.

Jurg Gotz, head coach said: “Brilliant performance from Lizzie. There were two gates that didn’t go to plan were she had to duck into the gate line giving us all a bit of heart attack, but she kept it together well. Getting a medal in the bag for the team sends a real buzz through the camp, and confirms that when we get our performances down we will be on the podium.”

Monica Stott, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

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