Pre-World Championships- Canadian Team Trials

Team Canada for 2015 World Championships

The Pre-World Championships are finished and the Canadian Team is selected! It will be an awesome Men’s K1 team and a good team overall, I think for the Canadians at their home spot. This weekend was a good indicator of the type of rides we can expect for the World Championships next year.

Dane and Emily Jackson took the top honors in the Pre-Worlds, both beating out current and past World Champions on Garberator. 2013 World Champion, Dane, beat out 2009 World Champion, Nick Troutman, and the rest of the field to continue his dominance in the senior men’s class. 2009 World Champion, Emily, beat out 2011/2013 World Champion, Claire Ohara, to put her back on the top after missing the team in 2013 (pregnant with Tucker) and getting second to Claire in 2011. Canadian Junior paddler Quinton Kennedy took the top honors, beating out Alec Vorhees (Silver medal 2013 Worlds), and his brother Calem took bronze.

It was perfect water levels on Garberator Wave for the entire competition. This proved out Joe Kowalski’s ability to work with the Hydro Dams to assure perfect levels. This was the wettest August in history, and the water levels prior to the event were higher than ideal. I am very excited about the Worlds next year here! The USA did not have our team trials this weekend on Garberator and now have to select it on a different wave in the USA next spring. Glenwood Springs Wave on the Colorado River is going to be the location, it seems. It will be another hotly contested event to determine who from the USA gets to compete in the World Championships. The Canadian Men’s K1 team is arguably the best in the world, but the USA team can be just as strong, or stronger, depending on how trials go. The USA women’s, junior, junior women, and C1 teams will also be amazing as we have depth of field there too. Sage Donnelly will finally be old enough to compete in worlds, for example… awesome!

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