DEVIZES kayak athlete Spencer Armstrong has been selected in Team GB’s U23 wildwater racing team for the European Championships in Slovenia later this year.

A stellar showing in last month’s British U23 wildwater selection event produced a third in the classic race before a second in the sprint race rubber-stamped Armstrong as the overall winner.

The title was all the more outstanding given the Devizes athlete suffered a pre-race seat breakage prior to the sprint race on the River Severn at Ironbridge in Shropshire.

Armstrong will now take his place in the Great Britain team when they travel to Solkan in Slovenia for the European Championship which is set to take place between August 25-28.

Armstrong also says his team is unlikely to know until much later if he will be allowed to travel to Slovenia, but until then “he will be continuing to train as hard as ever.”

The Wiltshire man says he is eager to make up for a disappointing 2019 - when he dislocated his right shoulder, four years after dislocating his left - and the cancelled events of 2020, but he is even more determined to give his family “something to smile about after a particularly cruel year.”