WHEN Jon Schofield first climbed in to a canoe as a cub scout he only had one aim – to stay upright and earn his water activity badge.

Now nearly 20 years later, Schofield has set his sights slightly higher; winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games.

The former Clitheroe Grammar School pupil has been involved in the sport ever since he first climbed in to a canoe at Edisford Swimming Baths as a nine-year-old.

Little did he know that it would take him to the greatest sporting event on the planet.

Later this month, Schofield and Liam Heath, the reigning European champions, will compete in the K2 200m canoe sprint event – the shortest and quickest canoe event at the Olympic Games.

And it has been something of a sprint for Sawley-raised Schofield in his quest to compete at the Olympics – he only swapped wild water canoeing for flat water racing five years ago.

“When I started all those years ago with the cubs, I had no idea it would lead to this,” said the 27-year-old who also attended Pendle Primary School. “I was always very active when I was younger and loved to be involved in sport.

“If it hadn’t been canoeing, then it would have been running or cycling. To what level, I don’t know but I always knew I would do something in sport.”

After his introduction to the sport, an enthusiastic young Schofield took part in the North West Scouts race series before racing on Windermere and Derwent water. He didn’t win but he kept on getting faster. Clitheroe was a wild water canoeing centre at the time and Schofield was coached by Jon Royle, training on the Leeds Liverpool canal at Rishton before joining the Wild Water Junior Development squad. There he went on to make a name for himself at junior and senior level.

Schofield and Heath are genuine gold medal contenders, having recently won the third successive European title while they were second in last year’s World Championships.

It’s no mean feat when you consider Schofield was a star of wild water canoeing as recently as 2007.

Among the bolders, currents and raging torrents he too excelled, winning the World Junior Championship in 2002 and going on to win the World Cup series and European Championship at senior level.

“They are two very different events and test you in very different ways,” added Schofield who has a degree in human biology from Loughborough University. “Competing in wild water can be dangerous and you really do need your wits about you. You’re not just competing against others, you are competing against a river that is changing all the time.”

Schofield admits the lure of the Olympic Games prompted him to switch to sprint canoes.

“The Olympics was a big draw for me,” he said. “As an athlete it is the pinnacle, so I wanted to see if I could achieve it.

“We are going to try and win gold and if we didn’t set ourselves that goal, then we would be letting ourselves.

“We have won a medal in everything we have competed in this year so winning a medal has to be out aim in London 2012.”

And should Schofield achieve that goal, it might just emulate that water activity badge.