Army Novices Prepare For Canoeing Championships

The Army have been training some of their novices ahead of the Canoeing Championships.

A few of the new recruits experience their first ever time on the water just days before taking part in the competition.

On the bank of the River Thames, the training took place with a few people struggling to stay in the boat.

Captain Rob Willis is leading the training team and expects nerves on the day of the race.

He said: “I’m pretty sure it is really scary for them. Some of them, as you will see from the footage, fall out all the time. They will have almost four to eight hours of paddling around and then they will compete.

“It’s quite regular nowadays. As across most sports in the Army, it is very difficult to get people away year in and year out.

“We give them a taster and hopefully, they come back next year.”

Two of the novices are Jonathan Davies and Graham Rose and they are keeping expectations low for the championships.

"It’s terrifying. We’ve been told that if we fall out, we can’t start again," said Mr Rose.

Mr Davies said: "Slow and steady wins the race. I was told this was a day out of works and now it’s the Army Championships."