Heath has the right mix and makes it a double
HE was working as a waiter in a cocktail bar when Liam Heath heard the news that eventually led him to winning a gold medal yesterday.
‘I came out of university twiddling my thumbs a little bit, not knowing where I wanted to go,’ recalled the 32 year-old, who is now Britain’s most decorated Olympic canoeist.
‘And then 200m was announced as an Olympic discipline and I’ve always been pretty nifty over 200m. I committed full time without funding initially, started to see improvements and I just went for it.’
Seven years on Heath collected Great Britain’s 25th gold medal here, surging through in the second half of that same 200m race in the kayak sprint to cross the line .165sec ahead of French rival Maxime Beaumont.
‘I just started coming back into the sport in 2009 after leaving it without any thought of competing again. To think that if I hadn’t come back in, I’d be missing out on this is quite scary to be honest.’
A long-time canoe competitor, Heath had quit after a bout of appendicitis while studying industrial design at Loughborough University, and decided he would focus instead on completing his degree.
Having done that he got a job mixing the cocktails at TGI Fridays in his native Guildford. Asked what his reaction would have been if told then that he would end up being an Olympic gold medallist one day, he replied: ‘Are you having a laugh mate? Do you want a pint?’
A friend from Wey Kayak Club, Paul Dimmock, got him back in a boat and designed a training programme for him, with his parents, Laurence and Linda, financially sup- porting him before he got into the British system. That led him to team up with Jon Schofield, with whom he won the silver medal in the two-man canoe earlier in the week. The results came fast.
‘I committed full-time without funding initially, jumped straight in a boat with Jonny and at our first World Cup we hit gold and that was an amazing achievement.’
Schofield was watching his room-mate yesterday with a knot in his stomach, but was quietly confident after helping him prepare.
‘He was flying in the water. I was warming up with him yesterday and today he was at another level,’ said Schofield, who since their silver has been at pains not to disturb his room-mate’s sleep.
‘I came back a little bit late the night before last and I got changed outside the bedroom, did my teeth elsewhere then snuck in like a Ninja. He never knew that I’d come back.’
Schofield explained the remarkable physiology that underpins his partner’s success, perfect for canoeing at speed. ‘The main thing is just power to weight,’ he said. ‘Liam’s like an ant. He’s been doing chin-ups with 90 kilos tied around his body, he could go for world records on that sort of thing. He’s just so strong at the moment, but so light, and that is a really powerful combination in the sprint.’
It enabled him to pace himself in what looks, to the naked eye, like a frantic sprint. After being second he duly edged in front with 50m to go against the Frenchman, with whom he was sharing the central lanes.
Having won by a nose and improved on his third place in London, Heath becomes the most successful British canoeist, with his gold, silver and bronze putting him just ahead of Tim Brabants.
He follows his training partner Ed McKeever in winning gold in the 200 metres. It made this GB’s most successful Olympic canoeing effort, with four medals, having been set a target of three to five.
Unfortunately he and Schofield’s event, the two-man, will disappear for Tokyo 2020, so should they decide to go on to Japan they may find themselves in competition for the single.