Oarsome foursome set sights on Tokyo
THEY made Olympic debuts in Rio and young guns Alyce Burnett, Alyssa Bull, Riley Fitzsimmons and Jordan Wood now have their eyes set on Tokyo in 2020 after being named in Australia’s sprint canoeing team for the world championships.
Strong results at the national selection trials last week saw the quartet named in a 15strong Australian squad to contest the World Cup series and world championships in Portugal in August.
A four-member paracanoe team, including Gold Coasters Curtis McGrath and Susan Seipel, as well as former Coast resident AJ Reynolds, was also named.
Sunshine Coast resident Burnett, who trains regularly at the Australian Institute of Sport facility on the Gold Coast, will lead the women’s team after a dominant performance at trials that included winning the K1 200m and K1 500m titles, as well as the K2 500m with Bull.
“This season has been massive step for the girls Australia,” Burnett said.
“A couple of the girls have now moved to the Gold Coast to the National Centre of Excellence and almost every day in our training environment we are pushing each other.”
While their immediate focus is the world championships, qualification for the Tokyo Olympics starts next year.
“Next year we obviously have to qualify boats for Tokyo so this season will be a bit of a trial run,” Burnett said. “It’s yet to be decided what boats we will race in, but come worlds and next year for Olympic selections, I hope we can have a really good K4 on the water.” a in