Ecover Blue Mile strikes gold with Olympic champion Tim Baillie
Olympic gold medallist Tim Baillie is to appear at the Ecover Blue Mile in Plymouth in September, after a shoulder injury to his C2 canoe slalom partner Etienne Stott ruled the pair out of this year’s World Cup Series.
Tim and Etienne were competing in the qualifying rounds in the third World Cup race in Spain in July when Etienne dislocated his shoulder, bringing an early end to their season. They had finished fourth in the first World Cup race of the season and runners-up in the second and felt they were just starting to get back to their best when the injury happened.
While Etienne is recuperating, Tim is training solo and will be using the Ecover Blue Mile as part of his training regime – as well as to have some fun!
Tim and Etienne both took part in last year’s Ecover Blue Mile off Plymouth’s Barbican – just weeks after winning their gold medals in the 2012 London Olympics.
Like last year, Tim will be tackling the stand-up paddle boarding (SUP) and sit-on-top kayak disciplines over the one mile course on the Saturday of the two-day event on 14-15 September.
“To be honest, everything was all a bit of a blur for us last year because we’d just had the Olympics,” said Tim “It was a pretty amazing time for us. You’re never going to top winning in a home Olympics.
“We’d had the opportunity to do most watersports before but I’d never done stand-up paddle boarding; that was the first time I’d ever tried it. It was good fun. It was quite tricky when you get to the choppy bit of the course but on the flat water it was fun and a cool way to get around.
“And the sit-on-top kayaks handled really nicely so that was fun, too.
“It would be great to see as many people taking part in the event as possible.”
The Ecover Blue Mile aims to connect people with the blue environment and is raising money for the Marine Conservation Society. Hundreds of people have already signed up to take part and there’s still time to join them. The disciplines are a timed one mile swim, kayak, SUP and the Aquatriathlon, which combines all three. There is also a corporate team challenge, where three team members each tackle one of the disciplines.
The deadline for registering is midnight on Sunday 8 September.
