Liam Heath and Jon Schofield went one better than London 2012 to win silver in the men’s K2 200m sprint and the good news for British Canoeing is Schofield’s paddle is still in one piece.
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“I could tell the Spanish were ahead of us but our race was on the other side of the course so I couldn’t have guessed where we came”.
“You kind of forget to breathe sometime”, acknowledged Heath, when asked about that pregnant pause.
“I just lost my mind [when it showed we were second]”.
“We gave it a bit of a lunge for the line”, said Guildford’s Heath, although he admitted the pair were unsure of where they had finished initially.
“It’s such a fast race”.
And as they thrust their paddles in the closing metres of yesterday’s final, a podium place was still very much a possibility thanks to one late last surge.
It would have been a costly end to a memorable day for the duo, who crossed 0.293s behind winners Spain. “We all went into that race knowing it’s a clean slate”, said Schofield.
That focus on another Rio 2016 medal means the caipirinhas that Heath, a former cocktail maker, yearns for will likely have to wait.
“But he’s racing again and he’s got a great chance in the K1 so we’ll be keeping it low-key for now”.
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Schofield, along with K2 partner Liam Heath, had second spot snatched from their grasp on the line at Eton’s Lake Dorney four years ago by the fast-finishing Belarusians Raman Piatrushenka and Vadzim Makhneu. “We have got a lot, lot stronger and the rest of the world has as well”.
