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Meet the Performance and Talent Sub-Committee

Neil Kinnerly • Mar 16, 2022

Last year, Canoe Wales launched its new sub-committee framework, which aims to increase engagement with its membership and develop its decision making in the functional areas of the 2019-23 strategy.

Last time, we introduced you to the members of the Development & Participation Sub-committee. This week, we are introducing you to the Performance & Talent Sub-committee.

This committee will work to provide advice and guidance to the staff and Board about the Canoe Wales Performance and Talent pathways, including:

Performance and Talent pathway squad structures and selection requirements
Athlete development and wellbeing
Opportunities to support a wider range of competitive disciplines within Wales
Performance Coach Development
Performance Club Development

So, let’s meet the sub-committee members...

Sid Sinfield (Chair)

Photo of Sid Sinfield pulling a funny face in yellow sea kayak

Sid has a fairly unique skill set that includes both depth and breadth of coaching-related knowledge and experience. In his current role where he works for British Canoeing as a Performance Coach Developer, he works closely with 18 full-time performance coaches across the British Academy and Podium stages of the Olympic and Paralympic disciplines. This crosses the disciplines of Sprint, Slalom and Paracanoe, where he helps them to develop and enhance their delivery to the athletes. He is also heavily involved in formulating a wider coaching development strategy for British Canoeing that is applied across all the associated discipline pathways.

Previous to working for British Canoeing, Sid worked at Plas y Brenin as a senior instructor, responsible for coaching in all forms of paddlesports, and had an involvement with coach education and mentoring at all levels. He was also responsible for coordinating the paddlesport qualifications delivered at the centre. With this knowledge and experience, Sid will undoubtedly be a considerable benefit to Canoe Wales in supporting and guiding the Performance & Talent Sub-committee to meet the goals of the Canoe Wales Strategic Plan.

Tanya Neilson

Tanya is Welsh born and bred and has detailed knowledge of the Welsh paddling scene and also elsewhere within the UK. In her spare time, she enjoys whitewater kayaking in North Wales (and beyond). She has recently purchased a playboat and is focused on her main goal of keeping it upright! Off the water, she is the Team Manager of the GB Freestyle Kayaking Team and Chair of the GB Freestyle Kayaking Committee. She currently also sits on the Freestyle World Championships Organising Committee. As such, she is interested in further developing a strong Freestyle voice within Wales, especially as a number of the current GB Squad are Welsh.

Bringing further experience as an RAF administrative officer and college lecturer, Tanya brings an excellent skill set in admin, communication and management, which will undoubtedly be very useful when working with the committee. Her goal on the committee is to help develop and exploit the overlaps between all competitive paddlesport disciplines and make a more co-operative and supportive system in Wales

Matt Robinson

Matt is a Welsh athlete in the sport of sprint kayaking and trained out of Cardiff Bay until the age of 18. Whilst living in Wales, he managed to compete at a number of international competitions as a junior athlete and was also a member of the Surf Life Saving Welsh Team. With these successes, he gained a place as a UK-Sport Lottery Funded athlete for 8 years; competing at 7 World Championships and 8 European Championships. He was also heavily involved in a number of Olympic cycles and various phases of the British Canoeing Performance Programme (both in Eton Dorney and in Nottingham). He recently retired from professional sport and made the transition to living back in South Wales.

Since moving back to Wales, Matt has been involved with supporting the sprint kayak athletes training out of Cardiff Bay and further developing his skills as a coach. With this experience of being involved as a senior athlete in a UK performance programme, Matt has invaluable insight to help shape the pathway of the Welsh Performance and Talent programme for athletes who will hopefully go on to emulate his success.

Jethro Moore (CW Board Member)

Jet is a hugely experienced paddler and outdoor educator based in West Wales. He runs his own business (Adventure Beyond) which provides outdoor experiences for a wide range of people. Jet has a background in many competitive paddlesport disciplines. He started racing in Slalom as a Junior before going on to broaden his skill set and taking part in many different paddlesport disciplines from Whitewater Racing to Canoe Polo.

Jet is moving into his second term as a Canoe Wales Board member where he has been busy representing the paddling community in Board-level discussions wherever possible. He’s also the Canoe Wales representative on the British Canoeing Coaching Strategy Group, so Jet works with other British Canoeing representatives to further the development of the British Canoeing Qualifications and Awards.

David Wakeling (CW Board Member)

David first became involved in canoeing over 25 years ago when his sons started to compete in Slalom. With David’s youngest son, Tom Wakeling, going on to represent Great Britain at major International races, Dave has an unique insight as a parent of a paddler who has progressed all the way through the programme.

Being involved in Canoe Slalom in Wales, he initially became Chair of the Canoe Wales Slalom Committee and was then invited to join the Board as Treasurer, before going on to hold the position of Chair of the Canoe Wales Board for a number of years.

An electronics design engineer by profession, in his spare time, David runs a small design and manufacturing company based in the valleys of South Wales.

So, those are your current representatives on the Performance & Talent Sub-committee, and they would all like to hear your views and feedback – so please feel free to give it to them! You can contact the sub-committee by emailing admin@canoewales.com and we will then forward this to the Chair. The sub-committee intends to meet around 6 to 8 times a year, and we will undoubtedly be in touch to update you around some of its work.

The Sub-committee is also keen to further establish its representation and engagement by inviting current athlete representatives to be a part of an Athletes Panel that would work along side the Sub-committee. They would therefore like to extend the opportunity to any paddler (between the ages of 16 to 30) within the UK who has experience of competing for Wales (in their chosen paddlesport discipline) to apply to become a member of the Athletes Panel.

If you think this is something you would like to be involved with, please contact our Performance Manager and Head Coach, Thomas Power, on thomas.power@canoewales.com for an application form or an informal chat.

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