A Gamesmaker at 2012 has secured a
place on the GB Paralympic canoe training squad for Rio 2016.
Mother of two Anne Dickins has, in
just seven weeks, gone from a total novice in a canoe to being named in the
squad after a chance encounter with development coach Colin Radmore at the
London Olympics.
The 45-year-old physiotherapist joked
with the former British slalom canoeist, who she met while queuing for a coffee
at the Westfield Shopping Centre, he could have her on the squad if he liked,
after explaining he was on a nationwide search for suitable athletes to train
for Rio 2016.
Paracanoeing is one of two new sports
accepted into the 2016 Paralympics, and Anne now hopes to be among the chosen
few. She has already posted impressive training times for the 200m sprint. One
of her initial training runs would have placed her 17th in the world
rankings for her category (LTA).
“The conversation that has changed my
life only happened because we were both early for work that day. It was 6.30 in
the morning and we were in a queue for coffee. It is unlikely we would ever
have spoken, but we were both wearing our Gamesmakers uniforms, and just struck
up a conversation. He told me he was on the look-out for athletes to train for
Rio. I joked, “why not: take me”, she explained.
Anne, who broke her back while in her
20s and recently underwent back surgery after a second injury to relieve a
spinal cord compression, was working with the physiotherapist team in the
cycling velodrome where later in the day she recalled her chance encounter to
colleagues.
“I was in a bit of a daze. It was
meant as a joke to offer myself as a potential squad member, but Colin’s coffee
was soon forgotten as he fired a barrage of questions at me about my back
injury, weak leg and bike racing history,” recalled Anne, who two years ago
raced to fourth in her age group on her debut at the World 24 Hour Solo Mountain
Bike Championships.
She has clocked up numerous endurance
titles since and was due to contest the 2012 world championships. She has not
ridden her bike for almost a year after undergoing back surgery earlier this
year, but has found the switch from pedalling to paddling a rewarding
challenge.
Post surgery she still has a weak hip
and leg, the canoe footwell having been adapted to give her more stability when
paddling. The LTA category is for athletes with reduced use of their legs, with
their arms and trunk working properly.
“I had struggled on in denial trying unsuccessfully
to race my bike, becoming increasingly frustrated and depressed with my weak
leg limiting me.
“I was really very
down about it until I was given this opportunity to do something completely
different. It was as if a light had gone on in my head and I had something
positive to work towards again rather than standing at a dead end trying to
'ride my bike through a brick wall'.
“But in the time it has taken to eat
half a muffin, I had gone from a frustrated endurance cyclist with a dodgy leg
to a possible GB para sprint canoeist,” she explained.
Anne was told, after her first selection meeting
she had to drop 15 seconds off her 70 second time to be anywhere near the
criteria.
She waded in with what she describes as “brute
force and ignorance” making weekly trips from her home in Oxted, Surrey to the
National Watersports Centre in Nottingham, fitting gym work inbetween her job
as a physiotherapist. “I have open blisters on my hands, aching shoulders and
quite scary looking biceps. My body is changing as I adapt from cycling to
kayaking and I adjust from being an endurance cyclist to sprint canoeist.
“Getting up at 4am and driving for three hours to
train on the water, and then coming home to the kids, was something I had to do
if I was going to make the programme,” she explained. “Things happen for a
reason, I don’t know why this has happened to me, but I am determined to make
it work.”
In addition to the tiring journey to Nottingham,
Anne also trains at the Wey Kayak Club in Guildford
under the critical, but encouraging, eyes of Claire Gunney, a former double
British Kayak Marathon Champion and world number 2, practising technique until
her body feels like a “rag doll” and her “hands bleed”.
She has been handed a four-year
development and training programme which currently provides her with 11
training sessions a week in Nottingham and Surrey on the water and in the gym
building up her muscles and using an indoor Ergo paddling machine to prepare
her for a series of National Regattas in the Spring. Anne describes the
training as "brutal" with a target of the European Championships in
Portugal in June. If she medals there she will head for the World Championships
in August, the start of her road to Rio.
“This is all very surreal for me but
if I start doing well I will have to look seriously at how I balance my home
life, the family, my business and my training. The children are behind me all
the way, reminding me to do my training and encouraging me.
“If I make it to Rio I am going to be
50 which is just ridiculous,” she laughed. “The kids will be 20 and 18 and I will
probably be broke! I’ve been using my cycling gear to train in so far, but as
this moves on I am going to have to invest in some serious equipment and
clothing.
“One door closes
but another one opens. I still can't believe that I made it onto the GB squad
never having raced a canoe and having spent nothing on canoeing except petrol
and precisely £6.99 on a pair of boat shoes!
"It just goes to show that anything is possible if you are open to change, want
it enough and have the correct support around you.”
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