KIMBERLEY WALSH has made a habit of following in her older brother’s footsteps, so it is only natural to hope that she, too, will end up on a high-class medal podium. Campbell won an Olympic silver medal in his slalom canoe in Athens last year and Kimberley joins him in an attempt to add to Great Britain’s recent successes on the white water when she competes in the heats of the women’s K1 race today at the World Championships in Penrith, Australia.

“When Campbell started canoeing, I had to watch because I was too young to join in,” Kimberley said. “But by the age of 8, I was equally hooked. Within a year I was doing my first slalom competition.”

The siblings, now 25 and 27, grew up in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, but have been based at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham since 1997. “The facilities there are great and the set-up is making a big difference,” Kimberley said. “It’s a strong British team now and we’re closing the gap on the leading nations such as Germany and Slovakia.”

While Campbell is considered one of the favourites in the men’s K1 race, Kimberley remains an outside bet in the women’s event. “I’ve had a terrible World Cup season,” she said, “but then everything clicked into place at the final GB trials at the end of August.”

Again, Campbell’s influence has been positive. “We’re always there for each other,” Kimberley said. “What I’ve learnt from him is very important. He took quite a long time before he started winning and then everything came together. My times through this season have been good, so we realised that I just need to relax a bit to cut out the mistakes.”

Amid the fast-moving water of a slalom course, that is easier said than done. In the two timed runs of a competition final, in which the paddlers manoeuvre their kayaks around a series of gates and obstacles, the smallest mistake can cost several places. “We deal in milliseconds,” Kimberley said.

The ups and downs, she insists, are magnified from the sidelines. In Athens, where she ran down the banks alongside Campbell on his medal-winning run, she sensed his disappointment and held back from joining the British supporters’ celebrations. “I knew he wasn’t happy that he’d made a couple of mistakes,” she said. But Kimberley was soon beside herself with joy when news then came through that a rival’s mistake had left Helen Reeves, who was thought to be just outside the medals in the women’s race, in third place.

Kimberley is keen to build on what she learnt from watching in Athens. “It was good that I was there because I realised that the Olympics are not full of mystery and wonder,” she said. “Actually, it’s just another race. It’s all the same people. Yes, there’s a bigger crowd, but you can’t expect to do well when you get these things out of proportion.”

Nonetheless, because these are Kimberley’s first senior World Championships, she admitted that there will be extra ripples of excitement. “I did get selected in 2001, but they were cancelled because of September 11,” she said. “So racing in Australia will feel special and it’s what I’ve been working towards for a long time.”

At least the course in Penrith will feel like a home from home. “It’s one of our winter training bases,” Kimberley said. “I’ve done one camp with it set up as it will be for these worlds. The end is tricky, so you have to make sure you have enough energy for the last push.”

There is no shortage of ambition, either. “Oh, I’d love it if both Campbell and I made it to the Beijing Olympics,” Kimberley said. “That really would be fun.”