Liam Heath

Liam Heath

Medal record
Representing Great Britain
Men's canoe sprint
Olympic Games
	2012 London	K-2 200 m
World Championships
	2010 Poznań	K-1 4 x 200 m
	2011 Szeged	K-2 200 m
	2013 Duisburg	K–2 200 m
	2010 Poznań	K-2 200 m
	2014 Moscow	K-1 4x200 m
European Championships
	2010 Trasona	K-2 200 m
	2011 Belgrade	K-2 200 m
	2012 Zagreb	K-2 200 m

Liam Heath (born 17 August 1984) is a British sprint canoeist. He was invited to train with the GB sprint canoe team in November 2009, at the age of 25, and entered his first senior season as a member of the team in 2010 competing in the K2 200m with Jonathon Schofield. During his first season with Jon they won gold medals in the K2 200m at the 2nd World Cup in Szeged and the 3rd World Cup in Duisburg and became European Champions in July 2010. They won two medals at the 2010 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Poznań with a silver in the K-1 4 x 200m relay and a bronze in the K-2 200m event.

In the 2011 international season he and Jon won two silver medals at World Cups 1 and 2 at Poznan and Racice and retained their K2 200m title at the European Championships in Belgrade in June 2011. At the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Szeged in August they won the silver medal, thereby gaining qualification for the GB K2 boat in the Men's 200m event at the 2012 Olympics. A fortnight after the World Championships Heath and Schofield took part in the London Invitational Olympic Canoe Sprint test event at Eton Dorney where they won the Bronze medal in the K2 200m.

At the end of 2011 Liam and Jon received Olympic Athlete of the Year awards from the British Olympic Association.

At the National Regatta in Nottingham in April 2012 Liam and Jon met GB Canoeing's K2 200m nomination criteria to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympiad . They won silver medals in World Cup 1 in Poznan and World Cup 2 in Duisburg and were part of the four-man GB 200m relay team that won the gold medal in Duisburg.

Liam and Jon formally became members of Team GB on 14 June 2012. A week later, at the European Canoe Sprint Championships in Zagreb they won the K2 200m title for the third year in a row.

In the inaugural men's K2 200m Olympic event at London 2012 Liam and Jon secured a bronze medal on the final at Eton Dorney on 11 August 2012.

During the 2013 international canoe sprint season Liam and Jonnie won the K2 200m silver medals at the first two World Cup regattas in Szeged and Racice respectively but missed out on a medal when they came 4th at the European Championships in Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal. Two months later at the World Championships in Duisburg the pair came second behind the Russians Postrigay and Dyachenko and were part of the fourth placed GB men's 4 x 200m team.

At the British Canoe Union's National Canoe Sprint Championships in April 2014 Liam won the K1 200m and (with Jon Schofield) the K2 200m titles. As a result Liam was selected to compete in the K1 200m for the first time in a senior international event at the ICF World Cup 2 in Racice in the Czech Republic, where he won the silver medal just 0.033 seconds behind Mark de Jonge . Just 20 minutes later Liam was back on the water with Jon Schofield for the K2 200m final in which they came 4th just 0.036 seconds behind the French boat. At World Cup 3 in Szeged Liam competed in the K2 200m only, winning silver with Jon behind the new German pairing of Ronald Rauhe and Tom Liebscher. Liam and Jon came 4th in both the European Championships (in Brandenburg) and World Championships (in Moscow) and won a bronze medal with Ed McKeever and Kristian Reeves in the Men's K2 4x200m relay in Moscow.

In April 2015 Liam won the K1 200m and (with Jon Schofield) the K2 200m National Championship titles at the BCU Canoe Sprint Regatta at Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham. At World Cup 2, in Duisburg, Liam and Jonnie won bronze in the K2 200m,and at World Cup 3, in Copenhagen, they won gold. At the inaugural European Games in Azerbaijan in June, as members of Team GB, they came joint 4th in the K2 200m final, 0.006 soconds off winning bronze. At the World Championship in Milan in August Liam and Johnnie came 5th thereby qualifying Team GB to enter a boat in the Men's K2 200m event at the 2016 Olympics.

External links

• British Canoe Union story on the 2010 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships. – accessed 22 August 2010.
• British Canoe Union story on the 2011 ECA Canoe Sprint European Championships. – accessed 19 June 2011.
• Nine Sprint Canoeists selected to go flat-out for Team GB – accessed 15 June 2012.
• Liam Heath and Jon Schofield win world canoe sprint silver – accessed 1 September 2013.