It was a dramatic and exciting weekend of sprint canoe and kayaking in Welland, in southern Ontario. Athletes paddled their hearts out as they competed for spots to represent Canada at the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Duisburg, Germany in August.
In the C-2, 1000 metre race Ben Russell of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and teammate Gabriel Beauchesne-Sévigny of Quebec, won their place with one last push that they lost their balance and ended up in the water.
“We shot our boat, which is just kind of throwing ourselves to the back of the boat to give one last push” , said Russell. It was only after the safety boat picked them up and took them to shore that they were able to confirm their win.
In the Women’s C-2 500 metre, Maria Halavrezos of Dartmouth, NS and Toronto’s Taylor Potts took the win. They edged out Laurence Vincent-Lapointe of Trois-Rivières and Sarah-Jane Caumartin of Otterburn, QC by less than a second.
Between the two sets of trials each crew has one win and the entry for World Championships will be decided by a race-off at the Lake Placid International Regatta in early July.
Canoe-kayak Canada (weekend race results)
Welland International Flatwater Centre
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.