大象传媒

"It helps if you're a bit of a nutter ... do I really have to say that?"

Helen Reeves in canoe slalom at Athens and is going to be commentating for the 大象传媒 in Beijing. Now we're working through the script for 大象传媒 Sport's video guide to slalom with her. Apparently she's not a nutter.

We spent Wednesday at , near Nottingham, the place British canoeists call home. It has top-class slalom facilities and when I turned up bright and early, it had top-class slalom canoeists bombing down the course too.

Slalom is a pulsating sport to watch, even if you don't know . Competitors throw themselves down a man-made course resembling river rapids, trying to pass through sets of hanging gates marked out using poles suspended from wires. Each run is usually finished in under 90 seconds over a distance of roughly 500-750 metres, and upper-body strength is the key.

, who will be the British representative for Beijing in the men's K1 class (), was there sporting a helmet proudly emblazoned with a Scottish flag.

He only qualified a couple of weeks ago, beating and in the Olympic selection trials down the same course.

Hadfield, who is seven years Walsh's junior, nearly nicked the trip to Beijing from under the Glaswegian's nose with a great performance at the first trials weekend in Holland.

But it's Walsh who gets his , and Hadfield who will have to wait for 2012, although the latter told me he's proud to have already led an Olympic selection race, even if he missed out.

Hadfield has been writing for 大象传媒 Sport for a few months now, following the Olympic qualification process in slalom. His latest article explains how qualification worked and it's a really useful guide to who has qualified, who hasn't, and why.

Helen Reeves is above all this competitive lark. She retired from the sport after her bronze medal in Athens, but agreed to dust off the boat to film our guide.

I'm not sure four hours in a kayak was what she needed to get over her cold, but she did a brilliant job and we have some gorgeous footage - particularly from her headcam, which shows you what it's like to go down a slalom course as an Olympian.

Canoeing seems to have an effect on people. Once they are actually in the canoe, their enthusiasm level rockets. Lines of script about "mayhem" and being "up the creek without a paddle" (I didn't write the script, I hasten to add), which got a bemused look from Helen on dry land, were delivered with gusto from the water. I think she might even have done the "nutter" line, but if you're not the one wearing the headphones, you can't hear a word she is saying above the noise of the rapids.

You can already see photos from the day via , and I'm off to inspect the headcam footage - plus stick our soggy microphones in an airing cupboard.

By the way, if is your thing, British star should be writing for us in the next couple of days. I'll let you know.