ORR Athletes at the Slalom Pan American Championships
Posted on Monday, March 04, 2013
Though it is early in the 2013 season, Canadian Slalom Team Members have already started competing in international events. The PanAm Championships took place this past weekend in Union de Tula, Mexico. Canada was represented by a team of 11 athletes from our Junior, U23 and Senior national teams. Team Canada included five ORR athletes:
Thea Froehlich
Florence Maheu
Kathleen Tayler
Canada finished with the most points overall, winning the Nation's Cup! (CKC PanAms News) Our ORR athletes are on their way home with 5 PanAm medals (7 total for Team Canada).
At the continental championships, each country may nominate 3 athletes in each category to be eligible for team points and medals. The medals are awarded 1/nation/category, meaning that of those 3 athletes in each category, only 1 can earn a medal for their country. All three nominated athletes have their results considered as a part of the overall Team Canada score for the competition. Additional athletes can compete in categories if they are not nominated to the PanAm team, however their results are only considered for international ranking points. CanoeKayak Canada announced the teams in this press release.
On Saturday, the qualifying heats were held in C1M, C1W, C2M, K1M and K1W, as well as the team events (where teams of 3 boats navigate the course together for a group time). On Sunday the semi-finals and finals were held. In categories with more than 10 participants, the top 10 advanced to the finals, in smaller categories all participants advanced. When this competition is held in the winter, it presents a real challenge for athletes from the northern hemisphere to prepare sufficiently. In addition, many are students taking time away from studies for this early in the season race. Congratulations to all our Canadian athletes on their hard work and racing at the PanAms!
Looking to the future, the 2015 Pan American Games will be held in Toronto Canada, and WO is hosting the whitewater slalom competition at the Minden WildWater Preserve. We can be sure that many of the young athletes on this year's team will be ready to race their best at home in two years, and the ORR will be there to support the event.
Full results are available on the Pan American Championships website.
Canadian PanAm Team Individual Results
C1M:
3rd Cameron Smedley (PanAm Bronze)
6th Zachary Zwanenburg
11th Ryley Penner (semis)
C1W:
2nd Jessica Groeneveld (PanAm Silver)
3rd Haley Daniels
5th Kathleen Tayler
C2M:
2nd Cameron Smedley & Michal Staniszewski (PanAm Silver)
K1M:
5th Michael Tayler
9th Ryley Penner
11th Adrian Cole (semis)
K1W:
1st Jessica Groeneveld (PanAm Gold)
3rd Jazmyne Denhollander
5th Thea Froehlich
Canadian Team Run Results
C1Mx3 3rd place PanAm Bronze (Smedley/Zwanenburg/Penner)
C2Wx3 1st place (not sure of medals, as they were the only entry)
K1Mx3 2nd place PanAm Silver (Tayler/Cole/Penner)
K1Wx3 1st place PanAm Gold (Groeneveld/Froehlich/
As some of you may have noticed… National Coach Michal Staniszewski teamed up with Cameron Smedley in pursuit of their PanAm Silver Medal in the C2 category. Michal was a Silver Medalist at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 (for Poland). Go Michal! Good to see coach on the water, even if it is just for one race.