KRISTIAN Reeves will race alongside Olympic gold medallist Ed McKeever and Olympic silver medallists John Schofield and Liam Heath at the World Kayaking Championships as part of a four-man 200-metre relay team.

The championships, in Duisburg, Germany, are being held from August 28-31 and the team will be preparing for the event with a 10-day training camp in Plovdiv in Bulgaria.

The four-man 200m relay involves teams racing up and down a 200m course, in nine lanes, against other teams from other countries.

"It's a really exciting event to watch," explains Reeves, who lives in Egham. "And it can be very unpredictable as there are so many kayaks involved. You have to be really fast off the line which suits us, as we all have a lot of speed. Each leg should take no longer than 40 seconds." Reeves' relay team are aiming high at the Worlds, with his team mates all having won Olympic medals at London 2012, only a rostrum finish will be good enough.

And he has also been selected to race the K1 (singles) 500m event at the same event.

As a junior, Reeves won a bronze medal in this event at the European Championships in 2007.

Since then he has been plagued by injury; he needed shoulder surgery in 2010 and he has also suffered a stress fracture in his lower back.

Reeves began canoeing with the 1st Virginia Water Scouts and said: "I first tried canoeing just for fun and I absolutely loved it, the club has all kinds of boats to try.

"I tried white water canoeing, plastic play boats and then slalom before being encouraged by Andy Dodson (Addlestone Canoe Club Coach) to try out the sprint racing boats at the club. And that was it, I was hooked."