Jess Walker has not had an easy time at the Canoe Sprint & Paracanoe World Cup in Szeged, but she insists the hard work has been worth the rewards.
Walker, alongside Angela Hannah, claimed gold in Sunday morning’s K2 200 final to continue a productive World Cup for GB.
The pair were finalists in Saturday’s K2 500 final, which was won by fellow Brits Lani Belcher and Rachel Cawthorn.
And on the final morning in Hungary there was no let-up for the duo, who had come off the water minutes before Sunday’s victory.
Along with Cawthorn and Louisa Sawers – the same crew that finished fifth in the London Games two years ago – they had just clinched a bronze medal in the K4 500 final.
“It was a big challenge competing in all these races over the last two weekends,” said Walker.
“Last night I went home wrecked after racing in the K2 final and the K4 heat and semis, but we knew the next day we could still go hard because we've done it so many times before in training.
“It's a good feeling to get out on the start line and learn as much as we can with each other and spread the success. And it feels good to do all these races and medal.”
Walker and Hannah won Sunday’s final by 0.282 seconds ahead of Slovakia’s Ivana Kmet’ova and Martina Kohlova and Hannah was delighted with the result.
“It's a really great feeling to win gold,” she said. “After our winter’s training it's always felt like we have been able to do it, so it’s great to actually get it out in a race.
“These last two weekends have been about seeing where we are in our crew boats and also learning about racing.
“We have really been putting ourselves under pressure and when we were tired pulling ourselves back up again to race in another event.
“But we all have a lot of determination, especially knowing that we are not going to get another opportunity to race these people again until the Europeans in July.”
© Sportsbeat 2014