THE transition from junior athlete to senior is notoriously tricky but with Deborah Kerr having bagged two canoe sprint world junior medals in recent years, expectations were high that the teenager would take the leap into the senior ranks without too much of a problem.
While elite sport rarely sticks exactly to the script, Kerr has managed to make the step up relatively smoothly and today she will take another step up the ladder when she competes in her first senior Canoe Sprint World Championships.
Kerr has been selected for the K4 500m boat for this weekend’s event in Racice, Czech Republic and the 19 year-old from Motherwell admits that she is more than a little excited about having the opportunity to pit herself against the world’s best.
“I’m really looking forward to it because this is a massive step up for me,” she said. “It’s my first major international competition as a senior so it’s really exciting and preparation has gone really well – everything’s come together at the pre-Worlds training camp so I’m feeling good.”
All four paddlers in Kerr’s boat are relatively inexperienced and so the teenager admits that the quartet do not have significant pressure on their shoulders this weekend.
“I do get quite nervous before races,” the teenager admits. “I’ve worked a lot with a psychologist this year on techniques to use to help deal with that though, and that’s really helped me settle myself. I know it’s cliched to say but you have to just go out there and do your best.
“Coming into my first World Championships, it’s quite easy to put placings out of my head because whatever happens, I’m just really happy to be in the team, although we do want to do well and reach the final.”
This has been Kerr’s first year as part of the British senior squad and with an Olympic champion in the current GB team, Kerr admits that it has taken her a little time to feel entirely comfortable being around such exalted company.
“I’m still working on feeling like I belong here and that I deserve my place – that’s one of the things that my psychologist and I have been working on,” she reveals.
“There’s people who have been on the team for years and years and so I do feel a little out of my depth sometimes but I think you’re always going to feel like that when you first break into seniors.
“I’ve done three senior World Cups so far and I’m treating it all as a learning experience at the moment. I’m racing against people that I’m used to watching on YouTube videos to look at their technique so it’s still pretty surreal and a bit overwhelming but I’m definitely really enjoying it.”
Kerr first began canoeing with her younger brother when still at primary school and both took to the sport immediately, with her brother following in her footsteps to become an international paddler. Despite Kerr having only been in the sport for a handful of years as the Rio Olympic Games approached last summer, the Scot nevertheless set her sights on making Team GB.
While selection for the Olympic team was always optimistic, Kerr admits that ultimately falling just short was a bitter pill to swallow.
“It was really hard to miss out in the end,” she admits. “I went into the qualifying period, with a really open mind about what could happen and my coach said I had that arrogance of youth. But as me and my K2 partner got faster, I got really quite emotionally attached to the thought of going to the Olympic Games, which is obviously what everyone wants to do.
“I’d only just turned 18 so I was still very young and I shouldn’t have expected anything but I did really, really want it and so not getting there knocked me for a good few weeks. Eventually, I was able to put things into perspective and realise that I had my whole career ahead of me and so I just got my head down and got back into training. Missing out did really make me realise that this was what I wanted to do though.”
A trip to Rio as part of Team GB’s Ambition programme, an initiative designed to give young athletes a taste of the Olympic Games before they compete in one themselves, was a nice bonus so that, coupled with a renewed drive to gain selection for Tokyo 2020, has meant that Kerr is as determined as ever to continue her progress through the ranks.
Having recently relocated to British Canoeing’s base in Nottingham, Kerr is full steam ahead for Tokyo 2020.
“It already feels like it’s quite close because the qualification period starts in less than two years so we need to really be on top of our game by then,” she says. “British Canoeing’s target is a medal in K2 so obviously I’d love to be part of that crew but really, I’ll be happy with however I can get to the Games.”
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