#CANOEING - The Irish Times profiles Irish canoeing contender Ciaran Heurteau ahead of the European Championships in Germany this weekend, where he hopes to claim his place at the 2012 Olympics.
Born in Paris to a Northern Irish mother, Heurteau has competed for Ireland since 2006, and is back to fighting fitness following a shoulder injury last year and a lacklustre World Championships performance in September.
“Looking at how I am coming into this race and how I came into the race at the Worlds, it’s a different feeling," he says. "I have never come into a race as prepared as I am now."
Heurteau joins Patrick Hynes and Eoin Rheinisch - who finished fourth in the K1 slalom in Beijing four years ago - among the Irish contingent in Augsburg for the championships, which began yesterday.
Meanwhile, among the women Olympic hopefuls on the team is Northern Ireland's Hannah Craig, who along with Heurteau and others was interviewed by BBC Sport this week.
