'It is the strongest team we have ever had'

Joe Clarke and the team will compete at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in Paris

Great Britain’s canoe slalom team said it will be fielding the strongest squad to the Paris Olympics it has ever had.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics the four-person team, which trains at the Lee Valley White Water Centre in Hertfordshire, brought back two medals.

Now the squad, which includes Joe Clarke, Kimberly Woods, Mallory Franklin and Adam Burgess, have gained more experience and hope to bring home more medals than ever.

Clarke, 31, who missed out on selection for the Tokyo Olympics, said: "It's definitely the strongest team we've ever had."

The squad will compete at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in Paris between 27 July and 5 August.

Clarke, from Stoke-on-Trent, won Olympic gold in the Kayak K1 event at the games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

He is aiming to become the first male to win two K1 Olympic titles in the history of the sport.

He will also compete in the Kayak Cross event, previously known as Extreme Slalom, which will make its debut in Paris.

Clarke said: “We’ve got myself, Kimberley Woods and Mallory Franklin who are all world champions.

"Adam Burgess is making every single final and showing his form there.

"It’s definitely the strongest team we’ve ever had.”

Burgess, 31, from Stone in Staffordshire, will be making his second Olympics appearance, after taking part at Tokyo 2020.

Mallory Franklin said she has hopes to take home gold after winning a silver medal in Tokyo

Franklin, Great Britain's most successful canoeist, won an Olympic silver medal in the C1 event at her Olympic debut in Tokyo.

The 30-year-old from Windsor, Berkshire, has hopes of going further this summer.

She said: “I mean there is definitely the scope, whether or not it happens who knows.

"For me I just want to sit on the start line and really try and paddle how I know I can.”

Woods, 28, from Rugby, Warwickshire, said: “Being a World Champion is such a privilege, it’s such a nice thing to have that you work so hard to get there.”