(The Japan News/ANN) -
Olympic canoeing medalist Takuya Haneda is taking the next steps toward securing a place on the national team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The bronze medalist in men’s canoe slalom singles at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Haneda endured a major slump last season. He’s now going "back to the basics" in a bid to regain his form.
Looking to top his performance at the Rio Games in Tokyo, Haneda has focused the past two years on developing agility, which has long been an issue for him.
Last season, he won his second straight gold medal at the Asian Games. However, he failed to reach the World Cup finals, a key priority, and lost in the preliminary round of the World Championships.
Though the positioning of the gates placed above water changed from last season, posing a greater technical challenge to athletes, Haneda was not aware of the adjustment until the final phase of the season.
"My prediction was off. I was preoccupied with how to overcome my weaknesses," he said.
Haneda is adept at precisely controlling his canoe. During a training camp in Australia in February, he carefully observed the techniques of top foreign athletes practicing on the same course. After repeatedly practicing on courses with the most challenging gate positions, he regained a knack for paddling that had gone missing.
At the final qualification race held in Yamaguchi Prefecture last month to select national team members for this fiscal year, Haneda didn’t clip the gates in any of the four races, including the previous day’s preliminary competition. His times were also far better than those of the other competitors.
"I had good runs in all four races. I can’t decide which one was best," he said. "My work the past two years wasn’t in vain and built up inside me. While keeping this up, I’ll further develop my arsenal of skills."
Haneda’s performance at the qualifiers boosted his confidence. The coming year will be pivotal for Japan’s top contender, who has further progressed by combining agility with technique.
Qualification for Tokyo Games
Competitors earn points based on their ranking at two World Cup meets in June and the World Championships in September, which serve as qualifying races for the Games. Final scores are determined using point totals from competitors’ two best races along with results from a final qualifier at the Canoe Slalom Center — the venue for the Games — in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, in October. The top-scoring competitors for each category will provisionally qualify for the Games.
