I'm really excited because after the painful 300m session yesterday that made me feel sick and gave me a headache (because its so intense!) I received the exciting news that we finally have confirmation of our Olympic place!  Woohoo! It has been a long and anxious wait since we raced in Milan but it has been worth the wait. Jess and I will go to the Olympics to compete in the K2 500m. It will be Jess's first Olympic Games and my second. We leave for Beijing with some other members of the GB team on the 6th August... Its the world's most spectacular sporting event and I can't wait!

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I got back from Poland late on Sunday night and then i was back on a plane this morning, it feels like I am in and out of airports every 5minutes! Apart from unpacking my bag, washing my clothes and re-packing I had a busy couple of days at home... First thing Monday morning I had jabs for China done, an injection in each arm for typhoid, hep A, tetanus etc.. luckily no bad side effects just both arms feeling very sore and the muscle feeling like its been badly bruised! On Tuesday morning I was speaking at  St Charles (primary) school assembly to 180 5-10 year olds about canoeing and the Olympics. It is the only speaking engagement i have done this year and although i committed to not doing any until after the Olympics I decided to make an exception for this one. I was glad I did, the children seemed to really enjoy what i had to say and if I can inspire a group of children to aim higher, dream bigger and be the best that they can be and if  just one child becomes an Olympian or an Olympic Champion then its more than worth my while. 

Yesterday afternoon I did a photoshoot with the Sunday Times to go with a fitness piece they had interviewed me about. Luckily it was schorching hot yesterday because i was photographed in shorts and a crop top and then a bikini for an hour and half. The best bit was that I was given a selection of Heidi Klein bikinis to choose from, the one i choose is really gorgeous. 

Then, in the middle of packing my bag and wanting to spend some time with Neil before i left again for another 2 weeks, the out of competition drugs tester turned up! And of course i had just been to the toilet! So an hour and a half and a litre and a half of water later the drug test was complete and it was time to go to bed! 

So Jess and I arrived in Hungary this afternoon to 28deg heat, which is glorious. We are staying at the Dunavarsany training centre on the small Danube river, near Budapest. We are here for two weeks before Jess goes off to compete at the Junior European Champs and I go home for a week. By then I hope to have a good couple of weeks training in the bag and a great tan..

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"Yesterday we were supposed to race the semi final and the final of the 500m followed by the final of the 200m, however Jess was not feeling well. She has had a cold all week and it was getting worse. She has to race the junior European championships in 2 weeks time and needs to be better. So we pulled out of all the racing yesterday. It was disappointing and frustrating not to be able to race. It was our last chance to race before the Olympic games however Jess needs to be well and be able to train hard in the next 2 weeks. Howeverm we should have lots of opportunities to do race practice and time trials in training instead."

spoken through SpinVox

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"On Saturday we raced the heat of the 500 m. It went ok, we finished 3rd and progressed to the semi final. In the afternoon we raced the final of the 1000m. Following the heat on Friday this is the only the 2nd time we had raced 1000m, so we're kind of learning still! We finished 4th. It was a good race but disappointing to miss out on a medal."

spoken through SpinVox

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First day of racing here in sunny but rather windy Poznan and everything started off pretty well. Our first race was K2 1000m. We had the heats of all 3 distances today so the plan in the 1000m was to just proceed to the final as comfortably as possible (1-3 direct to the final). We had a great start and then cruised through to second place behind the French crew. In the 200m again 1-3 went straight to the final and we won our heat so we were pleased with that. We don't have to race the semis tomorrow! The wind picked up massively this afternoon, so bad that there were waves with white tops. After postponing the racing a number of times the organisers eventually conceded that the wind wasn't going to calm down today and the rest of the 500m racing has been postponed until tomorrow. The programme will recommence at a delightful 7,30am tomorrow! We'll have the 500m heat in the morning and the 1000m final at 5.13pm...