HANNAH Brown has her sights set on the World Championships after being named in the Great Britain development team for the opening sprint canoe World Cup.

The 25-year-old from Bradford-on-Avon was delighted to be one of two women heading to Montemor-o-Velho in Portugal on May 15.

Brown, who had an injury hit campaign last year, has recently recovered from illness to claim her place and said that it was the perfect start to what will be an important year for the young canoeist.

“It has started my season on a high and it’s an awesome opportunity for me to raise my K1 and develop that,” said Brown who won gold in the K1 sprint discipline at the World Wildwater Championships in 2014.

“I have had a little bit of an illness so it is nice to still be selected and have a racing opportunity in a couple of weeks so I am excited to get going.

“I am transferring across from wildwater to sprint and I am happy to get any race experience possible.

“I had an injury last year so it has taken a bit of time to transfer over and it is exciting to start my season like this.”

Brown will now be making the most of the good weather to practice before heading to Portugal on May 12 as she targets a personal best time.

With the World Championships in August and the Olympics in Rio De Janeiro next year, the next couple of months will be crucial for the young canoeist but she feels that her winter preparation has set her in good stead for the season ahead.

“I have had an excellent winter so it will be interesting to see where I am and then what needs working on moving into the season,” she added.

“I am excited to still be racing internationally and it is a progressive selection for us this year so we’ll do one race and then fingers cross we will be selected for the next one.

“I would quite like to get a PB on my time and see what that yields in terms of placing.

“It is hard to tell because we are quite early on in our season and our major championships are in August so we are preparing mainly for that.

“Our main selection is in July so to get out there and race internationally and practice our race plan and see what areas we need to develop in the short term.

“I think we all need to work hard to get into that selection this year. It is Olympic qualifiers so they will be sending the best team out there to qualify for next year.

“Rio is definitely one of my goals, and even moving past that to 2020.

“I think it is on every athlete’s horizon but there are lots of things inbetween then and now that I need to get right.”