Stafford & Stone Canoe Club paddler Adam Burgess’s hard work since he joined the club in 2003 has paid off as he gained a place on Team GB and will be going to represent Great Britain next year at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Adam will be following in a long line of Olympians from S&SCC and will be looking to Rio 2016 Gold Medal winner and club paddler Joe Clarke for inspiration and hopes to replicates Joes success in Tokyo and bring an Olympic medal back to Stone.

To celebrate Adams achievement S&SCC have come up with their biggest challenge yet! We didn’t want Adam to feel alone in Tokyo so the club is going to paddle there with him! Well in theory, still it is a very ambitious challenge. Starting on 1st January 2020 we will start logging every single kilometre each paddler paddles until the 26th July when the Canoe Slalom event starts in Tokyo. The aim is to paddle the 9506km from the club house in Stone to the start line of the Canoe Slalom Course in Tokyo. Yes that 9506km in just 208 days!! It's an epic challenge but like Adam is determined on getting gold in Tokyo we as a club are determined to get to the start line with him. This means the club needs to be paddling 45.7km per day! With several members training with GB Team in London and many juniors training regularly with British Canoeing squads we hope this is achievable. But it's not going to be easy, so even the non paddling parents are getting involved using the canoeing trainers in the gym to clock up extra KM. This really is a team event. Adam is fully behind the challenge and when asked about it said, “Love this idea so much! I'm so grateful to have the club's support on this journey to Tokyo and this is a great way for everyone to get involved and feel a part of it. I'll look to lead the way and I hope that inspires everyone to get out and clock up those KMs!”

Along the journey we will be raising sponsorship to buy new equipment for the club. Which will help us keep nurturing the next Olympians and giving local children an opportunity to try canoeing and get out and active. We will also be donating 25% of any money raised to CRY, Cardiac Risk in the Young. A charity preventing young sudden cardiac deaths through awareness, screening and research, and supporting affected families. Adam has supported CRY for some time along with many top athletes and we wanted to show our support too.

We will be kicking off the challenge on New Years day with the annual race and we won’t be stopping until 26th July, so if you need anyone form S&SCC next year we will probably be out paddling!

For more information on Paddle to Tokyo challenge, regular updates on progress, to support the challenge or for information on how to come and try canoeing please visit our website: www.staffordandstonecc.co.uk

PADDLE TO TOKYO