South Australian canoeist Charlie Ellis looks set for a long career in canoe sprint after winning seven medals at the Oceania Championships and second Grand Prix in Adelaide.

The 18-year-old has put himself in contention for a place in Rio and on the senior team with a victory in the men’s C1 1000 on Saturday.

Ellis recorded a time of 4:08.12 to finish 2.35 seconds ahead of Martin Marinov with one of his key mentors, Marius Cristi Florian finishing third.

“It was actually quite surprising to come out on top on that 1000 because I have never raced Martin Marinov before and I have never beaten Cristi so to come away with the win was pretty good,” Ellis said.

The West Lakes Canoe Club paddler has taken giant strides in the past 12 months, improving on his time at Grand Prix 2 a year ago by 23 seconds.

His improvement has been attributed to his consistency on the water.

“I would do one good stroke and then have a bad one but in that race I was ticking over, consistent and I think that is what got me over the line, just the getting the technique and power consistently in the race,” Ellis said.

“Every stroke has to keep the boat running and keep the power up and speed so especially in that last 200 metres when you start to fatigue you keep the power going and to even lift is something I have had to work on but I am glad it came together just in time.”

His improvement can be attributed to the excellent support team he has around him in South Australia.

“The coaching has been huge, Cristi helping me and then Krzystof (Lepianka) for the last two years and also my foundation over at West Lakes with Jim Murphy."

"Everyone is giving me technical advice and it has all come together to give me a pretty good technique I reckon.”

In addition to his success in the C1 1000, Ellis won a further three gold medals in the C2 200 alongside Victorian Sebastian Wakim, and in the C4 1000 and C4 500 events with West Lakes trio Benjamin Keogh, Gabriel Tramaglino and Jace Bayliss.

Ellis and Wakim combined to also win a silver in the in the C2 500 and a bronze in the C2 1000.

Ellis is excited for what the future will bring and has enjoyed being a part of watching the popularity of canoeing events increase in recent times.

“I am definitely looking at a future Olympics and the under-23 World Championships,” Ellis said.

“I am really enjoying seeing the sport growing so much in Australia because this is the first year we have had heats in any of the races and we had three heats in the 200 which is huge, so we have never had so many paddlers on Australian water together and it’s really good to see it growing.”

Ellis will now shift his focus to preparing for the National Sprint Championships at Champion Lakes in Perth from 2 to 6 March.

“I am just going to go out and race as hard as I can, and try to win again at Nationals and see what happens, fingers crossed I guess.”

Photo and article canoe.org.au