Tim Brabants retires from international competition

This entry should have been devoted to the Nottingham British National Regatta, which officially started the sprint calendar in the islands to select the international team that will represent GB in the European and World Championships. Nothing out of the ordinary, with K1 200 Men for favorite McKeever, while Rachel Cawthorn won the Women 200 and Jonathan Boyton (in the absence of Paul Wycherley for a shoulder injury) was the one this time disputed the 1,000 to Tim Brabants, relegating him to the silver medal.

If you have the holy patience to go looking at the results of the 300 races, here it is the resulting pdf madness.

However, on Monday some breaking news eclipsed everything else when Tim Brabants announced its retirement from the high level competition. Despite having met the criteria to join the national team this year, Brabants took the difficult decision at the prospect that reached his age (36 years old) he has passed his best moment and is unlikely to improve his level, so he doesn't want to close doors to new paddlers who will now have the opportunity to get experienced in the national team and be eligible in the future to achieve the success he has already achieved.

Brabants will now practice his profession, doctor, where he hopes to get specialized in emergency care.

Great Britain and Belgium present their Sprint teams for London 2012

Maxime Richard will paddle the K1 200 for Belgium

The national teams going to London Summer Games keep being announced, so today we present the British and Belgian paddlers selected to defend their colours at Eton Dorney venue in August.

Yesterday, at the olympic venue itself, the nine paddlers (by the way, this morning the Team GB has confirmed one more quota place given to their women team) selected to compete for the Union Jack were introduced to the media and public audience. Belgium too has already got an official list of three paddlers for just two boats qualified, but with a very high level.

The British team seized the sunny day yesterday at Eton Dorney to present their Sprint team, which so far, waiting for the fifth woman place, to be announced on June 25th, is composed by: