Kayak, canoe racers take home hardware

August Sibthorpe and Sophia Jensen are at opposite ends of the age eligibility spectrum for kayak and canoe racing at the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg, but they had something in common Tuesday.

Sibthorpe, 20, and Jensen, 15, left the Manitoba Canoe and Kayak Centre as double gold medallists for Ontario and Quebec, respectively.

The second of four days of heats and finals saw Ottawa-Gatineau and area paddlers strike gold four times and add one bronze medal plus two fourth-place finishes.

In swimming, Ashton’s Regan Rathwell won the bronze medal in the women’s 400-metre individual medley in a personal-best 4:59.74. Louis Bertrand and anchor Antoine Cyr-Bouchard of Natation Gatineau formed half of Quebec’s bronze-medal-winning men’s 4x200-metre relay team in 7:53.93.

Sibthorpe, who normally races for the Rideau Canoe Club, placed first in women’s K1 1,000 metres in 4:08.12. After earning two silver medals recently at the world junior championships in Romania, Jensen was unbeatable in the women’s C1 1,000 metres in 4:37.87, and the IC4 over 500 metres with 20-year-old teammates Juliette Brault of Lachine, Emmanuelle Guilbert of Kirkland and Victoria Saucier of Montreal in 1:54.72.

Rideau’s Rowan Hardy-Kavanagh, Emily Howard of Mississauga, Kate Pennyfather of Oakville and Jillian Perrone of Oakville took bronze in the IC4 race in 1:56.052.

Ontario improved to 3-0 in women’s indoor volleyball, defeating Newfoundland Labrador 25-5, 25-13, 25,6, while Quebec’s record dropped to 1-1 with a 25-21, 25-18, 23-25, 22-25, 15-11 loss to Alberta.

In men’s indoor volleyball, Quebec, 2-0, turned aside Yukon 25-8, 25-10, 25-16, and Ontario, 3-0, outlasted Alberta 28-30, 25-23, 25-19, 25-23.