Australia’s top paddlers will start their 2011 race to the London Olympic Games this weekend when they compete against a top flight international field in the second leg of the Australian Canoe/Kayak Sprint Grand Prix series at the Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith.

AIS athletes will feature heavily in the high class field with Olympic champion Ken Wallace looking to continue his domination in the men’s K1 events.

Wallace, who won the men’s K1 500m in Beijing, recently competed in the Doctor Ocean Race in Perth, and has completed several intense training camps on the Gold Coast. He won both the K1 500m and K1 1000m at the first GP in Adelaide in early December.

Wallace also broke his World Championships gold medal drought in 2010, when he walked away with the men’s K1 5000m title and will be looking for a big season in 2011 as he prepares for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Australian Olympic bronze medallist Hannah Davis ended last year in sparkling fashion when she took three gold medals at GP1.

The 25-year-old beat AIS team mate Lyndsie Fogarty before teaming with the Queenslander to take the K2 gold medal. Davis and Fogarty were part of the bronze medal winning K4 500m crew in Beijing, and in Adelaide they teamed up with fellow scholarship holders Naomi Flood and Bernadette Wallace to claim the Women’s K4 500m.

Other AIS athletes in action over the three days of competition in Penrith will be Tate Smith and Joel Simpson, who both have been in impressive form over the past two months.

There will be a strong international presence at Penrith, particularly in the men’s events, where Great Britain’s Edward McKeever will start as favourites in the 200m. The current 200m World & European Champion will be tough to beat in the shortest event on the program, while fellow Brits, Liam Heath and Jonathan Schofield will be the ones to beat in the men’s K2 200m.

Wallace, meanwhile will face a strong international field in the men’s K1events with 19 internationals in the field, 10 of them from New Zealand.

Racing starts at 8am tomorrow at the Sydney International Regatta Centre.