Abu Dhabi paddler Mike Ballard targets podium at Pan-Am Canoe Sprint Championships

Trip to Canada his first assignment since becoming a full-time sportsman

Abu Dhabi-based kayaker Mike Ballard (left) trained with the Ottawa River Canoe Club en route to competing at the Pan-Am Canoe Sprint Championships in Nova Scotia. Courtesy Mike Ballard

Mike Ballard is looking to cap his first month as a full-time kayaker with a podium finish at the Pan-Am Canoe Sprint Championships.

The Abu Dhabi-based paddler is in Nova Scotia for the event, which involves competitors from North, Central and South America. He will go in the six-man final of the KL2 on Wednesday.

Ballard is well acquainted with his rivals, given each was involved in the World Championships at the same venue last week.

Ballard exited that event at the semi-final stage, with Argentina’s Ariel Atamanuk dominating the race.

Atamanuk is the clear favourite for the Pan-Am title, but Ballard is hopeful of challenging the rest of the field.

“It is a local derby in which there are much less likely to be world-record speeds [than at the World Championships],” Ballard said.

“If I can catch the Uruguayan competitor, that will mean I have raced a really good race, and if I can catch Canada, that will mean a place on the podium. It is a big ask, but we will see.”

The trip to Canada has been Ballard’s first assignment since he resigned from his job at a school in the UAE capital last month.

The Michigan-born kayaker is now set to devote all his time to pursuing his dream of making it to the Paralympic Games in Paris.

“What I need is consistency, continuity and structure,” Ballard said. “For me, my training set-up in Abu Dhabi is perfect.”

His eyes have already been opened to the benefits of having greater flexibility with his time.

He was able to stop midway through his 2,000-kilometre road trip from Michigan to Nova Scotia and train for a week with new friends he had made at an event in Poland.

Travelling away from that event, he had struck up a conversation with the Canada team after they were delayed at the airport together.

Brianna Hennessey, a world silver medallist, invited him to train at her home club, the Ottawa River Canoe Club, en route through to Nova Scotia.

“It is an unexpectedly inveterate paddling culture,” Ballard said.

“It is part of the fabric of Canada, especially in Nova Scotia. Every club I have been to, there have been 100 kids out on the water every day.

“From those philosophical chats I have got to have, I really have homework to do.

“Now I am becoming a full-time kayaker, I am looking forward to doing all of that stuff. To be in a paddling community, it is so big and exciting.

“I plan to take some of what I’ve learnt and build my own programme in Abu Dhabi. That week was the most valuable part of the whole trip.”