SZEGED, Hungary — Canada’s Laurence Vincent-Lapointe beat a strong field to win the women’s 200-metre singles canoe final Sunday, claiming her second gold medal at the sprint world canoe-kayak championships.
The 19-year-old paddler from Trois-Rivieres, Que., crossed in 48.876 seconds to defend her world C-1 200 title in the non-Olympic event. Maria Kazakova of Russia was second, while Staniliya Stamenova of Bulgaria won the bronze.
"I was caught off guard by the fast start by the field and that made me more nervous during the race," Vincent-Lapointe said. "My arms were really burning up as I approached the finish line. This was the strongest field I’d ever faced."
The win was Canada’s fifth at the world championships. Adam van Koeverden of Oakville took the men’s K-1 1,000 on Friday and Paracanoe competitors Christine Selinger of Regina and Christine Gauthier of Pointe-Claire, Que., captured K-1 200 events Thursday.
Also Sunday, Mark de Jonge of Halifax earned an Olympic spot for Canada at the 2012 London Games in the men’s K-1 200 metres with his sixth-place finish.
Piotr Siemionowski of Poland was the winner in 34.770, Edward McKeever of Britain second in 34.896 and Ronald Rauhe of Germany third in 35.118. De Jonge, who won his first career World Cup medal — a bronze — this season at Duisburg, Germany, clocked 35.514.
"It was a very satisfying race," the 27-year-old said. "I stuck to the plan and brought the stroke rate up the way I wanted. With the large and noisy crowd, it wasn’t easy and made it hard to focus."
"I had known since May I was going to race this event at worlds so it was a long buildup practising every day with that objective to get the Olympic spot for Canada. It was a good feeling to deliver when it was time."
Canada also secured Olympic quota spots in the K-1 1,000 and C-1 1,000 at the world championships. The final opportunity to gain spots will be at the Pan American Games in October in Mexico.
"Certainly we had some athletes who were hoping for better results but we had several boats which were very competitive," said Barney Wainwright, CanoeKayak Canada’s high performance director.
The Canadian men’s 4x200 K-1 relay team, including de Jonge, Connor Taras of Waverley, Rhys Hill of Ottawa and Etienne Moreau of Lac-Beauport, Que., finished fifth Sunday and Ryan Cochrane of Windsor and Hugues Fournel of Dorval, Que., won the K-2 200 B final to place 10th.
0 Comments
Posts
