Tokyo 2020: Olympic K1 canoeing champion Joe Clarke left 'in pieces' by non-selection
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Following his win in Rio, Stoke's Joe Clarke won a gold and two bronzes at the 2018 Slalom World Championships
Reigning Olympic K1 canoeing champion Joe Clarke says his non-selection for the Tokyo 2020 Games feels "unjust".
Clarke, 26, from Stoke-on Trent, became Great Britain's first individual K1 gold medal winner when he triumphed at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
He was on course to defend his title when he won the first two selection races, but came only fifth at the Canoe Slalom World Championships.
Bradley Forbes-Cryans, in fourth, less than a point ahead, was picked instead.
"I wish Bradley all the best going forward," Clarke told BBC Radio Stoke. "But it's so hard to differentiate between fourth and fifth and putting so much on it. Neither of them were medal-winning performances.
"I'm in pieces. I've got lots of thoughts going round in my head but it's hard to put into words.
"No matter which way I spin it round it feels a bit unjust what's happened, but I guess that's sport."
He continued: "(It's been) My best season to date and I've come out with the worst kind of result: not going to the Olympics for the chance to retain my title. The wind's been taken out of my sails.
"But I hit two gates. And I did not put in my best performance by any means, so there's only me to blame.
"I knew I'd left the door open. I wasn't sure exactly how the policy worked. But you don't look at the rear view mirror at what's behind you."
Clarke's immediate concern now is the prospect of an operation on a "niggling" shoulder injury, which he had going into last month's World Championships at La Seu in Spain.
British Canoeing Performance Director Paul Ratcliffe said following the Championships: "It was incredibly tough, tight racing.
"We know that we have such a strong team and that it is always going to be difficult to separate them. But we have a first past the post policy."
Joe Clarke was talking to BBC Radio Stoke's Robin Grey