Blink and you’ll miss it, but the men’s K1 200 is set to be one of the great battles of the 2017 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Racice later this month.

Sitting in the hot seat is 2016 Olympic gold medallist, Liam Heath of Great Britain. Breathing down his neck is the Olympic silver medallist, France’s Maxime Beaumont.

Like the 200 metre race itself, the Heath/Beaumont rivalry has been short but, so far, intense. Heath hasn’t been around long enough in the 200 metres to build up much of a rivalry with anyone, but he has ripped through the discipline like a hurricane and is now very much the hunted.

He stormed to Olympic gold last year in 35.197, hunting down Beaumont in the back half of the final, with the Frenchman finishing in 35.362. It was as convincing a win as one could post in a race that is all splash and dash.

Beaumont was out early in 2017 plotting his revenge. In the absence of Heath the 35-year-old cruised to gold in the season-opening World Cup in Montemor.

But Heath was back in Szeged, and back on top of the podium. It could have taken the wind from the Frenchman’s sails, but his campaign regained momentum with a storming victory over the Brit in Belgrade.

“It was very important for me, I would like to get at least one win over Liam before the European or World Championships,” Beaumont said at the time.

“It will be a very good fight the next time we compete. I am a little tired because I have had a lot of competition without going home, but I tried to do the maximum with the energy I have.”

Heath’s life post-Rio has been a roller-coaster, the highs of being toasted as an Olympic gold medallist coupled with the lows of a new training set-up in the UK which has meant he now spends long hours training by himself.

So it was somewhat of a relief when he won gold at his first serious outing post-Rio, at the Szeged World Cup.

“Psychologically it’s been tough,” he said at the time.

“I’ve been training by myself down at Dorney because British Canoeing has moved up north, so we try and collaborate when we can.

“So it’s been pretty lonely and quite hard when you’re out there in England in the rain and the storms and the weather, and sometimes you think, bloody hell, I’ve done it, what am I still doing it for?

“But then you come to events like this and it all makes sense.”

Heath celebrated his 33rd birthday this month, and knows the challenge over the next three years will come from more than Beaumont. There are plenty of young guns working their way through the ranks.

Could one of them upstage the Olympic gold and silver medallists in Racice? All will become clear on the final day of this year’s World Championships, Sunday August 27. 

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