Joseph Clarke

UK kayaker
The basics

Quick Facts

IntroUK kayaker
PlacesUnited Kingdom
isCanoer
Work fieldSports
Gender
Male
Birth3 November 1992, Stoke-on-Trent, City of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, United Kingdom
Age32 years
Star signScorpio
Stats
Height:1.82 m
Weight:76 kg
Awards
Order of the British Empire 
The details

Biography

Joseph "Joe" Clarke, MBE (born 3 November 1992) is a British slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2009, specializing in the K1 event. He is the 2016 Olympic champion in the K1 event and has won medals in team events at World and European Championships.

Early life

Clarke was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. He first tried canoeing during a trip with The Scout Association at the age of eight. He then applied to join the Stafford and Stone Canoe Club, but was rejected for being too young. He was given the chance to reapply through his middle school's canoeing club during year six at Walton Priory Middle School, but as they only had eight places available which were greatly oversubscribed he was required to write a letter to demonstrate why he deserved a place. His application was successful and he began training with the club, competing in his first race in 2004 at the age of 11.

Clarke attended Alleyne's Academy high school, after going to his middle school Walton Priory Middle School. At the age of 15 he contracted bacterial meningitis which caused an abscess behind one eye. He was in hospital for two weeks and was treated with intravenous antibiotics, after which he made a full recovery.

Career

Clarke made his debut for the British junior team in 2009, winning junior European Championship silver medals in the K1 team event in 2009 and 2010. He has trained at the Lee Valley White Water Centre since 2012.

He won a European Championship under-23 silver medal in the individual K1 in 2013, and World Championship silver medals in the under-23 team event in 2013 and 2014.

At senior level, he won three medals in the K1 team event at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with a gold (2018) and two bronzes (2014, 2015). He also won two silver medals in the same event at the 2014 and 2015 European Championships.

Clarke was selected for the 2016 Summer Olympics after winning the individual K1 at the British selection trials in October 2015. At the Olympics he qualified for the final of the K1 event with the third fastest time in the semifinal. He won gold in the final with a time of 88.53 seconds, the first time a British competitor had won gold in this event.

Clarke was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to canoeing.

In 2018, Clarke guest starred in the third episode of the fourth series of the CBBC children cooking show Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch.

Clarke narrowly missed out on selection for the tokyo 2020 olympics. Following the postponement of the games, Clarke tried to force British Canoeing to abandon the selected athletes and have a new selection process for the olympic team. Unfortunately for Clarke this idea was rejected and British Canoeing have decided to stand by the existing team selection to allow these athletes to focus on the postponed games.

World Cup individual podiums

SeasonDateVenuePositionEvent
201416 August 2014Augsburg2ndK1
201824 June 2018Liptovský Mikuláš3rdK1
1 July 2018Kraków1stK1
201916 June 2019Lee Valley1stK1

Results

2009

DateTournamentEventScorePlace
Run 1Run 2Best Run
22–26 JulyJunior European ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat110.28108.97108.9727
K1 Men Team HeatN/A121.974
K1 Men Team FinalN/A115.452

2010

DateTournamentEventScorePlace
Run 1Run 2Best Run
8–11 JulyJunior World ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat102.40101.18101.183
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A122.7930
K1 Men Team FinalN/A116.405
4–7 AugustJunior European ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat98.2396.9796.974
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A104.8816
K1 Men Team FinalN/A115.022

2011

DateTournamentEventScorePlace
Run 1Run 2Best Run
1–3 JulyWorld Cup Race 2K1 Men Individual Heat102.40103.92102.4044
14–17 JulyU23 European ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat97.84100.5497.8415
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A101.6018
K1 Men Team Semi-finalN/A106.022
K1 Men Team FinalN/A117.736
~World Cup Final StandingsK1 Men IndividualN/A117

2012

DateTournamentEventScorePlace
Run 1Run 2Best Run
11–15 JulyU23 World ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat115.37unknown30
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A108.9612
K1 Men Team FinalN/A131.1510
6–9 SeptemberU23 European ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat113.38111.02111.028
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A105.125
K1 Men Individual FinalN/A107.607
K1 Men TeamN/A128.619

2013

DateTournamentEventScorePlace
Run 1Run 2Best Run
6–9 JuneEuropean ChampionshipK1 Men Individual HeatN/A85.768
K1 Men Individual FinalN/A138.0713
K1 Men Team FinalN/A103.247
21–23 JuneWorld Cup Race 1K1 Men Individualunknown
K1 Men Team FinalN/A107.854
5–7 JulyWorld Cup Race 3K1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A103.4030
K1 Men Team Finalunknown
17–21 JulyU23 World ChampionshipK1 Men Individualunknown31
K1 Men Teamunknown2
30 July – 4 AugustU23 European ChampionshipK1 Men Individualunknown2
K1 Men Teamunknown4
16–18 AugustWorld Cup Race 4K1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A112.0529
K1 Men Team FinalN/A125.278
11–15 SeptemberWorld ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat140.8188.1088.109
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A97.646
K1 Men Individual FinalN/A101.076
K1 Men Team FinalN/A113.945
~World Cup Final StandingsK1 Men IndividualN/A35

2014

DateTournamentEventScorePlace
Run 1Run 2Best Run
22–27 AprilU23 World ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat95.0694.4494.449
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A100.9311
K1 Men Team FinalN/A106.322
29 May – 1 JuneEuropean ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat87.52136.3587.5213z
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A88.3015
K1 Men Individual FinalN/A91.4711
K1 Men Team FinalN/A98.752
6–8 JuneWorld Cup Race 1K1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A97.8811
K1 Men Team FinalN/A108.711
13–15 JuneWorld Cup Race 2K1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A152.1034
K1 Men Team FinalN/A122.928
20–22 JuneWorld Cup Race 3
K1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalunknown
K1 Men Individual FinalN/A98.766
K1 Men Team FinalN/A157.2110
1–3 AugustWorld Cup Race 4K1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A97.6824
15–17 AugustWorld Cup FinalK1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalunknown
K1 Men Individual FinalN/A95.492
K1 Men Team FinalN/A113.926
17–21 SepWorld ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat101.05204.40101.0519
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A156.3636
K1 Men Team FinalN/A123.243
~World Cup Final StandingsK1 Men IndividualN/A4

2015

DateTournamentEventScorePlace
Run 1Run 2Best Run
28–31 MayEuropean ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat94.91unknown1
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A95.143
K1 Men Individual FinalN/A96.168
K1 Men Team FinalN/A108.012
19–21 JuneWorld Cup Race 1K1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalunknown
K1 Men Individual FinalN/ADSQ-R10
K1 Men Team FinalN/A103.194
26–28 JuneWorld Cup Race 2K1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalunknown
K1 Men Individual FinalN/A82.484
3–5 JulyWorld Cup Race 3K1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A98.7729
K1 Men Team FinalN/ADNS=16
7–9 AugustWorld Cup Race 4K1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalunknown
K1 Men Individual FinalN/A96.059
14–16 AugustWorld Cup FinalK1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A100.2318
K1 Men Team FinalN/A106.482
16–20 SeptemberWorld ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat81.47unknown2
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A142.5738
K1 Men Team FinalN/A106.383
~World Cup Final StandingsK1 Men IndividualN/A7

2016

DateTournamentEventScorePlace
Run 1Run 2Best Run
13–15 MayEuropean ChampionshipK1 Men Individual Heat92.58unknown19
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A94.985
K1 Men Individual FinalN/A144.5810
K1 Men Team FinalN/A118.174
10–12 JuneWorld Cup Race 2K1 Men Individual Heatunknown
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A96.1618
7–11 AugustOlympic GamesK1 Men Individual Heat135.8986.9586.952
K1 Men Individual Semi-finalN/A90.673
K1 Men Individual FinalN/A88.531
World Cup Final StandingsK1 Men IndividualN/A61
The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 10 Jul 2020. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.