K1 Women Hannah Craig (IRL), after her second heats run

“Like always whitewater canoe slalom is eventful so you never really know how it’s going to go.”

“My first run was solid and unfortunately I had a touch which meant I didn’t make the top 20 automatically and my second was a little bit off on every section and I was fighting the water and it was slower.  So I’m disappointed with my second run.”

“It has been an interesting season because I came back from pregnancy and only started racing again five months ago so it’s been a gradual process. Five months ago I was 20 seconds off the pace, today I was six seconds so I’m getting closer.”

“I had a baby 15 months ago and I started training last summer.  It’s been a long process.”

“You have to adapt your training.  I can’t train as much as before but it has to be more quality based.  I was breast feeding as well so that had its physical challenges and the back chose to not sleep for 13 months so that was hard.  But within that I have never been happier in my whole.”

“The hope is to qualify for the Olympics.  I don’t think I will have done enough today.  Then it will be the Europeans in May in Slovakia which will be the last opportunity to qualify.”

“Qualifying the nations spot is the most difficult part.  If you qualify the nations spot at the Europeans you will get to go the Olympics.”

Hannah Craig