Jonathan Schofield believes he and partner Liam Heath are heading firmly in the right direction after grabbing bronze at the canoe sprint World Cup in Racice.
The duo, who also won the same colour at the London 2012 Olympic Games, finished on the podium in the K2 200m, while Rebii Simon also won silver in the women’s K1 1000m.
It was a vast improvement for Schofield and Heath after they finished seventh at last week’s World Cup in Duisburg.
“The nature of racing at the high level these days is that if you execute a tiny bit off perfection then you are off the podium,” said Schofield, who finished half a second off gold.
“And today we refined lots of little bits, the same as the other guys who also made it onto the podium.
“It feels like we are going in the right direction but we’re not going to get complacent.
“We know we are one of the world’s best and it’s all about getting it right on that one day in Rio.
“We will assess what we can improve on from here and how we can work on it over the next four weeks then assess it again at the Europeans.”
Simon, meanwhile, was reflecting on a job well done after claiming her first individual senior medal, finishing 1.178 seconds behind Hungary’s Tamara Takacs.
“I went into the racing really wanting to win,” said the 19-year-old, who was one of the K4 quartet who secured Team GB a quota place at Rio 2016. “But I’m pretty happy with my race and I really couldn’t have done any more.
“I’ve got lots of silver medals but all from junior level. This is my first senior medal so it’s pretty special.”
Sportsbeat 2016