Brabants taking to canoeing return like duck to water

By Gerard Meagher, Sportsbeat

IF AN apple a day keeps the doctor away then Tim Brabants' rivals would do well to fill their boots in orchards high and wide between now and London 2012.

DOCTOR ON CALL: Tim Brabants no longer has a stethoscope around his neck but he's hoping another gold medal will be at London 2012

Brabants, for the second time in his career, has turned his back on the A&E ward, swapped his stethoscope for his canoe, and embarked on an Olympic campaign.

Despite his passion for medicine, the decision to return was an easy one, with the London 2012 Olympics - likely to be his fourth and last - taking place on home soil, on in his case, waters.

For he will be 35 by the time he makes his way down the renovated Eton Dorney Lake and there are only so many comebacks from retirement one man can make.

Brabants is not in the same mould as five-time Olympic champion Steve Redgrave and he made no empty promises about guns and boats - instead going quietly about his business and returning to his medical career at Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre just weeks after Beijing 2008.

But Brabants shares Redgrave's determination and both have Olympic gold medals to their name after the former topped the K1 1000m podium in Beijing - and bagged 500m bronze to boot.

Whereas some Olympians have meandered their way back into competition since Beijing, Brabants had been on dry land until May this year, but had immersed himself in the helter-skelter lifestyle that goes hand in hand with A&E.

Last weekend however, after just three months back on the water, Brabants romped to silver at the World Championships in Poland - it's fair to say he has hit the ground running upon his return.

And Brabants believes the benefit of experience is paramount, having also spent approximately 18 months on the ward and not the water after a disappointing Athens 2004.

"I'm very happy with where I am at the moment. It's a great help for me that it's a situation I've been in before and I know how to gauge where I am and where I should be," said Brabants, who has now relocated to his Teddington base in south-west London once more.

"Just in terms of preparation and getting back out on the Thames at the crack of dawn, having the prior knowledge is so important."