Nine local paddlers named to Sprint World Cup team

Nine local paddlers were selected to Canada’s 2022 Sprint World Cup team following the first set of national team trials which were recently held on Lake Banook.

Over 100 sprint paddlers from across Canada competed in the four-day trials on the Dartmouth lake last week. The trials served as a selection regatta for the ICF Sprint World Cup Racice, ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup and Para World Cup Poznan events being held later this month.

Lake Banook, home base for three Atlantic Division canoe kayak clubs – Banook Canoe Club, Mic Mac Amateur Aquatic Club and Senobe Aquatic Club – will host the 2022 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in August.

Julia Lilley Osende of Mic Mac and Cheema’s Sloan Mackenzie were selected for women’s canoe, Connor Fitzpatrick of Senobe, Sacka-wa’s Tyler Laidlaw, Craig Spence of Cheema and Maskwa’s Andrew Billard and Bret Himmelman will compete in men’s canoe and Cheema’s Riley Melanson and Michelle Russell were named to the women’s kayak side.

Eight Olympic and Paralympic paddlers from the Tokyo Games were selected to the team, including 2020 Olympic bronze medallist Katie Vincent.

“It was really nice to start off the season last week on Lake Banook,” Vincent said in a news release. “Though it was a lot colder than Tokyo, there was a lot of world-class paddling coming from our team. It was an excellent start to our road to Paris (2024 Olympics).

“I am looking forward to the world championships coming to Dartmouth this August. It’s going to be incredible to have the support of our local paddling community cheering for us this summer on Canadian waters. I get chills just thinking about it.”

The ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup circuit begins on May 20 in Racice, Czech Republic, followed by ICF Para Canoe and Canoe Sprint World Cup in Poznan, Poland, on May 26.