THE Hawkesbury’s James Lloyd-Martin has established himself as one of the premium young kayakers in the country.
The 17-year-old who attends Colo High School wants to make a red hot go of kayaking, and hopes to one day represent Australia at the Olympics.
Since the age off 11, Lloyd-Martin said he had paddled, but one day, his mother suggested taking him to a kayaking try out day for something different.
He ended up enjoying it a lot. In 2014, much to his own surprise, he finished in first place at a tournament, and decided then to take up the sport more seriously.
His overseas travel log so far only includes New Zealand, but Llyod-Martin hopes to add to that in the future as he becomes more competitive in the sport.
“One of my coaches is [World Championship gold medalist] Rosalyn Lawrence],” he said.
“She basically started coaching me from then on two to three times a week, plus my own training.”
Llyod-Martin said he was eager to see how far he could go as a kayaker.
Lloyd-Martin has competed at the Australian Schools National Whitewater Championships, the National Canoe and Kayak Slalom and the 2017 Canoe Slalom Australian Open.
Lloyd-Martin said he grew up playing soccer, but never really took the sport too seriously.
“I was never that great, I just did it for the fun, but it was great to develop a sense of belonging to the team,” he said.
Kayaking, is the complete opposite of a team sport, and is a battle to push oneself as hard as possible.
“I like the fact that if I stuff up it is my fault, then I can't blame it on anyone and conversely if I do well, it is me doing well,” he said.
Llyod-Martin has just finished the kayaking race season, and has a long wait on his hands before the next big event on his radar, which is the Australian Open, in January, 2017.
In the lead up to that event, he will have to do ‘six months of hard training” to ensure he is up to the competitive standards.
Lloyd-Martin is a student leader at Colo High School, and when not kayaking, is devoting a lot of his energy toward studying.
He said regardless of where kayaking takes him, he wanted to study at the University of Technology Sydney.
“I am taking it as it comes, I am not putting too much pressure on myself to succeed,” he said.
“I am going to try to study business at UTS, and I'll basically get into whatever field I can from there.”
Despite his goal to make the Olympics, Lloyd-Martin’s more immediate priority is to make sure he gets a good ATAR to head off to university with.
“When I finish school, that is when I'll put twice as much effort into kayaking,” he said.
Llyod-Martin said he had been selected to join the national talent squad, something he was very proud of.
Being part of the squad will involve high intensity training camps designed to draw his potential out and make him a world class kayaker.