It’s 500 days to the start of the London 2012 Olympics and, with tickets going on sale today, one hopeful from Stone has set up his own website to keep people up to date with his battle for an Olympic place.
Eighteen-year-old Joe Clarke, a student at Alleynes High School and member of Stafford and Stone Canoe Club, competes in the canoe slalom. It’s an extreme sport that requires concentration, precision, strength and flexibility to negotiate a sequence of gates on fast-moving white water as quickly as possible.
Joe is currently a member of the Olympic Development Programme, which hand picks athletes from all over the country with the potential to win medals at future Olympics.
He said: “I’ve been canoeing for seven years now. It started as a hobby but things started to get more serious as the years went by and I realised I had a talent for the sport. Since then I haven’t looked back.”
He certainly hasn’t! He came first at the British Open last year and fourth in the Great Britain senior selection, as well as first in the GB under-23 championships in 2009 and 2010.
Chris added: “Looking to the future my aims for the next 12 months are to make the U23 team and compete at the European Championships in Banja Luuka in Bosnia.
“Looking further into the future, I would like to challenge for the Olympic place in 2012. With only one person in each category able to compete, it will be very difficult, so more realistically I will be aiming for 2016 and beyond. But who knows? There are still 500 days until the start of 2012 and anything could happen.”
Joe wants to get as many people as possible behind him in the run-up to London 2012. On Wednesday, he’s heading to London for the Lea Valley Open, the first competition to be held on the official 2012 Olympics course.
Joe is updating his website weekly and is also on Twitter. You can also see videos of Joe in action at his YouTube channel.
Let’s all get behind Joe as he bids for Olympic glory!
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