posted Jun 1, 2009

At the end of Sunday I asked Helen Reeves (who for anyone who doesn't know, won Olympic bronze in 2004 and now commentates for BBC Sport) pretty much the same thing.

She seemed pretty positive and was adamant that Fiona Pennie - who was at Beijing but didn't qualify for the Euros - would be back and in the thick of the action for London 2012.

But I think it's worth looking at your question. You've listed the men's and women's K1 teams, the men's C2 teams, GB's top C1 paddler, the top K1 paddler, and the men's C1 team, congratulating the first three and saying you expect the others to get better.

If that's the case, then that's a hell of a lot of Olympic medal chances by GB standards! Normally the team go into an Olympics hoping for a medal or two, a gold if they're lucky. The crop you list above are on track to provide a strong backbone for any Olympic squad, assuming (and I'd agree with you) that they get better over the next few years.

I reckon anything on top of them, with Fiona Pennie included, will be a bonus. Plus you've missed out bronze for Etienne Stott and Tim Baillie, which was a big achievement for a pair who were off funding all winter. They're only going to get better too.

On top of that you've got Richard Hounslow, Andrew Hadfield, Huw Swetnam qualifying for the K1 final in fifth, Lizzie Neave getting to her K1 final (and next time she probably won't get a 50sec penalty)... I think there's plenty of potential in there for 2012.

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