Lili Bryant named to GB Squad for 2018 Youth Olympic Games Qualification Event 

Canoe Wales are pleased to announce that after a team of Welsh paddlers attended the Youth Olympic Games World Qualification Selection Race at Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham on Saturday November 25th and after braving some very challenging conditions, Welsh paddler Lili Bryant was selected to the Great Britain Team.

Lili, of Llandysul and a student at Ysgol Bro Teifi, will now travel to Barcelona from 6-15 April 2018, and then if selected onto Buenos Aires, Argentina for the Youth Olympic Games finals from the 6-18 October 2018.

Lili had a tremendous season in 2017 finishing top of the British J16 Slalom rankings and 11th overall in the UK. She travelled with Welsh coaches Richard Lee and Tommy Power to the European cup races at Flattach, Austria, Augsburg, Germany, Krakow, Poland, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic and Bratislava, making the podium in most of the races. She also attended the Mezzana International in Italy finishing 3rd in the finals. These outstanding results meant that she finished her European tour 5th out of 88 competitors.

The Youth Olympic Games is set up slightly different from what Lili is used to and the competition not only tests the competitors in slalom, her natural discipline, but also sprint kayaking. Each competitor must race head to head along a designated course with an eskimo roll gate on the slalom, then switch boats to the faster but less stable sprint kayaks, giving an overall time for both disciplines.

In Llandysul, Lili can train 8 – 10 times per week in slalom but now has to try and fit in some sprint sessions to strengthen her weaker discipline. Llandysul does not lend itself to flat water, but luckily Llandysul Paddlers has a small lake that can be used and some slower stretches of the Teifi will become her new training ground.

The other Welsh paddlers that narrowly missed out on GB selection were – Daniel Rees, Matthew Elliott, and Fin Yates Jones, all from Ysgol Bro Teifi, Catrin Schrouder from Ysgol Bro Peder and Rhodri Slaven from Llanrwst Canoe Club. The British Canoeing Team selected for the Youth Olympics Qualification Event are Lili Bryant (Wales), Lois Leaver (Scotland) Thomas Mayer (England), Jack Brockway (Scotland).

Canoe Wales has a great history of training paddlers up for Welsh and GB squads and would like to wish Lili and the rest of the team success in Barcelona.