Youth Team selection event. This was the big one for me. It was make or break time. And very sadly it was break. For the one and only time in my career I blew it big time and did not even make the first page on the result sheet!

There was a downstream gate on the middle of the falls that many, many paddlers were struggling to get. I missed it on my practice run and then missed it on BOTH my team runs! My mind was totally messed up after this and the pressure on me to nail a good run the next day was immense. I was in great shape physically, I was buzzing after the Grandtully result and was paddling well. But I think the part of me that let me down was my mental fitness. On my first individual run I could not help but let yesterdays performance on the falls creep into my mind. I missed the SAME gate again!

Never allow doubt to enter into your mind regarding your own abilities.

Last chance, second and final run. Aside from my own performance on the falls still bugging me, I had just watched the then British Champion, Ray Calverley miss the SAME gate as well! This really was no comfort and only demonstrated how difficult it was. I had a very tough lesson about the consequences of negative thinking. I missed it again. never went through it all weekend.

On a better note, Chris finished a brilliant 4th and Rob 16th putting VKC well up there!