Solihull kayak racer Dr Xander van der Poll is using his experience as an NHS doctor at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham to fuel his para canoe career as he prepares to compete for Great Britain at the ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Championships in Poznan, Poland, from 26-30 August.
The 27-year-old, who lives in Balsall Common, will race in the VL2 category in a va'a, a boat with a float attached to the side of the hull. He is part of a GB team that includes reigning Paris 2024 champions Charlotte Henshaw and Emma Wiggs, as well as 2024 Paralympic silver medallists Hope Gordon and Jack Eyers.
Van der Poll, who graduated from the University of Bristol with a Bachelor of Medicine degree, works at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston. He says the dual demands of medicine and sport have provided valuable lessons.
Balancing NHS work and elite sport
“For half of my year, I have been combining my work at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and actually I have been able to take learnings from both of those settings,” van der Poll said. “I can take my lessons from the NHS into racing and vice versa. If you are reflective and you’re able to understand a little bit more about life, then it all helps.”
“It’s all a journey with the things you can take into your life which you have learned from this sport. In para canoe, you’re racing in a straight line, you’re not impacting anyone else around you - the only person you can focus on is yourself.”
The medicine graduate made the A final of the VL2 race in Milan last summer at the Worlds, finishing in seventh place. His mindset is centred around bouncing back, something he did after being paralysed from the waist down in 2018.
Learning from disappointment
“I try to process disappointment when I’m racing as it comes, given we don’t get many opportunities to race,” he said. “For example, at last year’s European Championships, it was my first year in the elite programme and I was really excited to get a good race, and I set a personal best.”
“But 20 minutes later, I realised I had got out of my lane and was disqualified. It was the hardest pill to swallow to have put in my best performance and for it to not count. I realised that I am always building into the next competition, which is bigger, and so on. As we get closer to Paralympic selection, each competition becomes more important to get ranking points too.”
“Psychology is a massive game changer in the sport, and your racing season depends on whether you’re in a good headspace. I’m still working on it, trying to practice what I preach.”
Road to LA 2028
The World Championships in Poznan will be another marker before the LA 2028 Paralympics. Van der Poll’s progression in the sport has been marked by his resilience and ability to learn from setbacks, both on and off the water.
Paddle UK is the national governing body for canoeing, kayaking and all other paddle sports. For more information, visit the Paddle UK website.
