Cook Islands Olympic canoe sprinter Josh Utanga is preparing for the race of his life when he competes at the London Olympics later this month.

The 24-year-old Australian based canoeist received a wild card entry into the Olympics after the International Canoeing Federation (ICF) and the London organising committee awarded the Cook Islands a K1 1000m boat at the conclusion of the world Cup events in Poland and Germany in May this year.

This was seen as good reward for his results at the 2011 Canoe Sprint World Championships in Hungary, Oceania Championships and the recent World Cup events this year.

At the canoe sprint world championships last year, Utanga qualified for the C final in the open men’s K1 500m.

It is the first time a Cook Islands canoeist had qualified for a K1 final at a world championship event.

Buoyed by the result he went back to the Gold Coast and prepared himself for the last tilt at making the Olympics at the Oceania Canoe Sprint Championships, which also doubled as an Olympic qualification for the Oceania federation in Sydney in March this year.

In the men’s K1 200m qualification race he was matched up against Australia, New Zealand and Samoa.

Utanga was the surprise package of the race when he finished second behind Australia.

New Zealand’s former K1 world champion Ben Fouhy was expected to challenge for the Olympic spot but finished behind the Cook Islands to prove that it was no fluke when he lined up in the B Final after only just missing out on the A final.

The field included six New Zealand representatives, including Ben Fouhy, and two Australians.

Utanga flew out from the gate leading the race all the way until the final few metres finishing second, just beaten on the line by an Australian competitor.

Based on his results from the Oceania championships, Utanga was invited by the ICF technical director, Csaba Szanto, to compete in the World Cup event in May.

Szanto is responsible for the ICF Development Programme, which includes the successful Talent Identification Programme which Utanga is a part of.

When asked in a recent interview which athletes he thought were the biggest success story of the Talent Identification Programme to date, he nominated Tunisia’s Mohamed Mrabet and Joshua Utanga from the Cook Islands who beat former World Champion Ben Fouhy at the Oceania Olympic Qualification event.

At the recent World Cup events in Poland and Germany Utanga was looking to test his progress against all of the other Olympic competitors.

In windy conditions in Poznan, Poland, he did not progress past the semi-finals.

The next world cup event in Duisburg Germany provided another challenge as he was in enormous pain from his wisdom tooth which had to be removed.

Despite this Utanga paddled through the pain to make the C final in the K1 200m where he finished eighth.

Utanga is currently preparing in Perth and will be competing in the K1 1000m and 200m in London.