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I am absolutely delighted to be teaming up with Huntswood on my mission to win gold in Sprint Kayaking at the London 2012 Olympics.

I started the sport, aged 12, at Wey Kayak Club in Guildford in 1998 and dreamt of winning an Olympic Gold Medal. Quickly I worked my way up the junior ranks until in 2004 I was crowned Junior K1 (single kayak) World Champion. Nowadays I train for between 4 and 6 hours per day to realise this dream.

A typical day starts with a two hour training session on the water at 7am for a 90 minute kayak session.  Then I have an hours break before my second session of the day which is usually another 90 minutes in the boat. I train with the rest of the Great Britain team at Dorney Lake, Windsor (the 2012 canoeing and rowing venue). At 15:00 I go to the gym at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre and emerge again at 17:00.

I spend the first 3 months of each year on training camps abroad. As I write this I am currently on a warm weather camp in Australia. We have just finished a tough week. I worked out that I have; paddled over 125km, ran for 3hrs, swam 5km and lifted over 52,000 kilos in the gym.

In February I am off to Switzerland for altitude training and then in March I fly, with the team, to Seville to form the crew boats. After this we start the summer season and the racing begins! The racing season ends at the end of August.

On the 1^st October 2011, backed by Huntswood, I hope to achieve the World Record for crossing the channel in a kayak and raise £100,000 split equally between the Princes Charities and Great Ormond Street Hospital. The current record stands at 2hours 59 minutes for the 36km endeavour. During the challenge every second will count and for the charities every penny counts. Please support these charities and their great work by sponsoring the Cross Channel Challenge.

www.crosschannelchallenge.com

Last year I was ranked no.1 in the UK. The current Olympic Champion is coming out of retirement this year which is a challenge I welcome as the battle for the top spot will only improve us both and ultimately I have to beat him if I want to be Olympic Champion.

Follow me on Twitter: @huntswoodpaul. Please feel free to @ me to say hi or ask any questions and I will do my best to message & follow you back.