Matthew Goble

Age 19
Sport Played Sprint Kayaking
Years Played 8 years

Tell us about yourself

My name is Matt Goble and my main competition sport is Sprint Kayaking, I compete at local, state, national and international events, and I train a lot, usually including 3 gym sessions and 8 on water paddling sessions as well as 2 cross training sessions a week. Local competitions start in spring and go through to the National Competition in autumn. International comps are usually in the northern Hemisphere summer, so I am competing most of the year. My hobbies are also water based, I enjoy playing canoe polo, surfing and sailing. Kayaking is not a high profile sport and I am keen to promote the sport to others, I coach the pupils of my old school two evenings a week, I enjoy working with younger people and helping them develop their skills. I am also active in my local surf lifesaving club and during this summer I have been involved in surf education to school groups. I have also helped with a kayaking program called Arrows that runs regular kayaking trips for people with a disability.

Proudest Sporting Achievements

I have recently competed at the Australian National Championships where I was competing against the best sprint kayakers in Australia, I finished 1st in the K1 200 and K2 200 races, gaining me automatic selection for World Cup and World Championships in Europe and Canada later this year, this was a great achievement for me winning against older paddlers who I have admired for a long time. My proudest moment was as a junior paddler representing Australia in the Junior Sprint Kayaking World Championships in 2007, where I won a Bronze Medal in the K1 500 event. It was a fantastic feeling standing on the podium in my Australian Uniform.

What are you hoping to achieve

My ultimate goal is to represent Australia in the 2012 Olympics in London and bring home a Gold Medal. I also want raise the sport of kayaking and I am keen to take any opportunity to promote Kayaking

How does LineBreak help

LineBreak compression products help to improve my performance, help me to recover faster, and control my body temperature helping to reduce the risk of injury.

My Blog

Summary: 3rd March 2010 – 28th November 2010
Since my last blog in March earlier this year I have had a mixed year, from a disappointing nationals to some good international results. My experience at World Championships has left me with a hunger to step up my performance for next year. As the upcoming season gets kick started I feel I have found my feet again and am ready to meet the challenge of securing the K1 spot for the 2011 international tour.

16th March
I had confidence going into nationals, fuelled by winning the 200m the previous two years. Late last year the 200m was announced as a new Olympic distance. Therefore this year I had been focusing all my training on the shorter event and this year felt stronger than ever. I set the fastest time of the Championship in my semi. Unfortunately I was unable to back it up in finals and finished 8th. This was a shock but I had to put it behind me to race the K2 Final which Chris Alagich. We finished second .01 of a second behind the winners Steve Bird and Jesse Philips. This result gave me the opportunity to travel overseas to compete in the World Cup series and World Championships as part of the Australian Senior Kayak Team.

10th May
The Team arrived in Varese, Italy in May, where the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) now has its European training base for an number of different Sports. After two weeks of training we raced the Italian Nationals where we won a gold in the 1000m K4, my team mates being Chris Alagich, Steve Bird and Jesse Philips and a Silver in the K2 with Chris .10 seconds behind Stephen Bird and Jesse Philips in another close finish.

4th June
At the World Cup 3 in Duisburg, Germany, I raced K2 200m with Jesse Philips. It was an unusual race program with all heats semi's and finals being raced on the one day. We had our first race at 8.30 in the morning, it went well considering that the swap between K2 partners occurred only the week before. After a long day we made it through to the finals held at 8.20 that night and finished 8th. We were please this result given the limited training Jesse and I had done together.

7th June
With the World Cups over and the World Championships not until the 19th of August most of the Australian Team went back to Aus to train, apart from Chris and myself. We had been invited to compete in a Sprint Cup series in Germany. The 1st of these took place in Magdeburg. The course was just three lanes over 200m. The surrounding crowd of spectators made an amazing atmosphere. I managed to get through my heat and semi and came second in the final just behind Ronald Rauhe the 2009 World Champion.

19th June
Two weeks later we travelled to Neubrandenburg for our 2nd sprint cup. It was a very exciting competition with singles, mixed relays, longer races on a short course with sharp turns and dragon boat racing. The course was on the edge of a beer garden packed with hundreds of spectators, making another great atmosphere to race in. I was stoked to win the K1 and Hailey McGinty and I went on to win the K1 mixed relay. The dragon boat race was a good laugh where the Aussies teamed up with the German Kayak paddlers and raced the finals where we were winning until our steerer lost control and we finished 2nd.

10th July
Finally three weeks later it was the final Sprint Cup in Potsdam, the biggest of the 3 Sprint Cups. The organisers of the event take a week to fill a small channel in the middle of the town with fresh drinking water especially for the competition. This seemed strange given how precious water is in drought stricken Australia! The channel is 200m long and about 8 meters wide just wide enough to turn around at each end. With only 2 lanes it was an elimination process to get through to the finals with one chance in the repechage to get back in. I made it through to the semi with out losing. Unfortunately I was up against Ronald Rauhe the World Champ and didn’t make it to the final race off between 1st and 2nd. Instead I raced off for 3rd and 4th place where I finished 3rd. I also raced the K2 with Chris and won. This was great as the Germans have always been strong in their team boats. It was also a nice way to finish the Sprint Cups with over 5000 people packed around to watch.

After finishing the Sprint Cups, Chris and I drove to London where we met up with Steve Bird, Jesse Philips and our coach Martin Marinove. We spent some time training on the Olympic course. It was good to get some training done in a new environment and gain some inspiration for London Olympics! It was also nice change to be in an English speaking country after 2 months away. We then headed back to Italy for our National selection race off for World Championships.

4th August
After a few days back in Italy the Australian Kayak team had its final selection for World Championships. I competed in the K1 race off for the 200m relay and Chris and I raced for the K2 200m position. The K2 was first and after a bad start where Chris' seat cracked we began catching back up but finished .10 seconds behind Steve and Jesse. It was disappointing to lose yet again by such a small margin. I was left with the K1 race off, for a position in the relay team, as my only chance of competing in the World Champs. I made sure nothing could go wrong and won, leading from start to win by over a second with a personal best time.

19th August
After 4 months travelling around Europe we arrived in Poznan, Poland for the World Championships. The relays were on the final day so I had 3 days of watching my fellow athletes compete. There were many exciting races with mixed results. The highlight was Ken Wallace winning the 5000m K1. The relay was disappointing as we came 4th in the semi needing to be in the top 2 to make it to the final.

28th November
The last 2 weeks have been busy with National Team Selection Trails last weekend at the Gold Coast and the SASI (South Australian Sports Institute) selection trails today. At the National Selection Trials I was racing to get in to the 200m squad for the following year. To do this I had to finish in the top 2 in the K1 race with Jesse and Steve having already being selected from their performance at World Camps. Having just got back into training I was unsure how I would go but I came away with a win securing a spot in the 200m squad. With the rest of the week to prepare for the up coming SASI Trails I was confident after wining the national trials. I set the fastest time in the 200m giving me a gold level SASI scholarship.

02/03/10
Here's a reproduction of a short article that was written at the end of last year in the Portside Messenger:

LARGS Bay kayaker Matthew Goble dreams of representing his country at the London Olympics in 2012 and his chances of qualifying for the event just got a whole lot better.

A decision by kayaking officials to shorten the distance of the individual sprint event from 500m to 200m at Olympic level has left the 20-year-old in the box seat to get Australia’s sole position in the competition.

``I’ve always been really fast over short distances,’’ Goble said.

``It definitely suits me better than the 500m and the 1000m.’’

Goble displayed all of his speed and power by winning gold at the national championships in the event in March.

He followed that up by winning a silver medal at a World Cup event in Hungary in June in his first outing for the senior national team.

``That was the moment when I really started believing I could do this.

``The guy that won (German Jonas Ems) was the 2007 world champ.’’

Standing in between Goble and an Olympic berth is Beijing K1 500m gold medallist Ken Wallace. Goble is yet to compete against Wallace over the 200m distance but is confident he has what it takes.

``I think I can get him. Over the 500m he’s known more as a big finisher rather than a strong starter like I am.’’

Goble received a boost on the eve of the local season when he was awarded a Sport of Australia Hall of Fame scholarship.

Under the program, which was introduced in 2006 to help young Australian athletes reach the highest levels in their sports, Goble will receive $5000 and mentoring support from dual Olympic rowing gold medallist Mike McKay.

``I met him on the night at the Sport of Australia awards, he’s obviously an Olympic legend being part of the Oarsome Foursome.

``If I ever need to speak to him about anything I can get in touch with him.’’

The decision to shorten the sprint events from 500m to 200m was ratified by the International Olympic Committee in September.

It is aimed at making the sport more spectator-friendly.
http://portside-messenger.whereilive.com.au/sport/story/a-stroke-of-luck/