A day after finishing 14th in women’s K-2 500m, Maggie Hogan (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Kaitlyn McElroy (Oklahoma City, Okla.) placed 15th in the 200m distance. They placed 6th in their 200m B Final with a time of 40.574, which was +1.042 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
They reached the 200m B Final after placing 7th in their heat and 8th in their semifinal.
WHAT: 2013 ICF Sprint World Championships
WHERE: Duisburg, Germany
WHEN: August 29 – Sept. 1
LINKS: Results
Click HERE for coverage of the ParaCanoe World Championships, which concluded on Friday.
Rob Finlayson (Gainesville, Ga.) placed 7th in the men’s C-1 200m C Final, which was good for 25th overall. He turned in a time of 42.883, which was +1.763 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher. He reached the C Final after finishing 4th in his heat and 7th in his semifinal.
Arezou Montamedi (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Ian Ross (Bethesda, Md.) finished 18th in the women’s K-1 and men’s C-1 5,000m races, respectively. Montamedi’s time of 23:57.532 was +1:49.164 minutes behind the race’s first place finisher. Ross crossed the line in 25:26.447, which was +3:08.583 minutes behind the race’s first place finisher.
Saturday’s Results
Maggie Hogan (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Kaitlyn McElroy (Oklahoma City, Okla.) finished 14th overall in the women’s K-2 500m event on Saturday. They placed 5th in their B Final with a time of 40.259, which was +2.49 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
Hogan and McElroy also placed 8th in their 200m semifinal to advance to Sunday’s B Final. Their semifinal time of 40.259 was +2.49 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
Arezou Montamedi (Oklahoma City, Okla.) placed 15th overall in the women’s K-1 1000m event. She finished 6th in her B Final with a time of 4:19.863, which was +11.409 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
Montamedi will compete in Sunday’s 5000m race. Ian Ross (Bethesda, Md.) will race in the men’s 5000m distance.
In men’s canoe, Rob Finlayson (Gainesville, Ga.) finished 7th in his C-1 200m semifinal to reach Sunday’s C Final. His semifinal time of 42.185 was +3.101 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
“He had a fantastic 4th place finish in the heat and a personal best time in competition,” said U.S. Canoe Coach Claudiu Ciur. “Today, he started a little slow and that made his boat move a little slow – 1.5 seconds slower than the heat. He will race Final C tomorrow. I hope he will win Final C.”
Tim Hornsby (Atlanta, Ga.) and Ariel Farrar-Wellman (Bethesda, Md.) finished 7th and 8th in their men’s and women’s 200m semifinals, respectively. Hornsby, a 2012 Olympian, turned in a semifinal time of 36.722 was +2.193 behind the race’s first place finisher. Farrar-Wellman’s semifinal time of 44.457 was +4.228 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
Friday’s Results
London Olympian Tim Hornsby (Atlanta, Ga.) led the way with a 4th place finish in his men’s K-1 200m heat, setting himself up nicely for Saturday’s semifinal. His time of 36.791 was +1.094 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
Rob Finlayson (Gainesville, Ga.) finished 4th in his men’s C-1 200m heat to advance to Saturday’s semifinal. His time of 41.866 was +6.65 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
Maggie Hogan (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Kaitlyn McElroy (Oklahoma City, Okla.) placed 7th in their women’s K-2 200m heat to reach Saturday’s semifinal. Their time of 40.749 was +2.77 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher. On Saturday, they will also be competing in the 500m B Final.
Ariel Farrar-Wellman (Bethesda, Md.) finished 8th in her women’s K-1 200m heat, qualifying for Saturday’s semifinal. Her time of 44.159 was +4.315 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
Ian Ross (Bethesda, Md.) placed 6th in his men’s C-1 500m heat and then 9th in his semifinal. His semifinal time of 2:00.983 was +13.556 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
Also competing Saturday is Arezou Montamedi (Oklahoma City, Okla.) in the women’s K-1 1000m B Final.
Thursday’s Results
Maggie Hogan (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Kaitlyn McElroy (Oklahoma City, Okla.) finished 6th in the semifinals for both women’s K-2 500m and 1000m on Thursday. They will compete in the 500m B Final on Saturday.
Hogan and McElroy placed 6th in the 500m heat before turning in a semifinal time of 1:48.338, which was +6.583 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher. In 1000m, they finished 4th in the heat and then recorded in a semifinal time of 356.599, which was +7.298 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
Arezou Montamedi (Oklahoma City, Okla.) placed 5th in her women’s K-1 1000m semifinal to earn a place in Saturday’s B Final. After a 6th place finish in the heat, she turned in a semifinal time of 4:21.678, which was +12.871 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
The Iranian-American placed 7th in her K-1 500m heat and then 8th in the semifinal. Her semifinal time of 2:04.261 was +11.432 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
In men’s canoe, Ian Ross (Bethesda, Md.) finished 7th in his C-1 1000m heat and 9th in the semifinal. His semifinal time of 4:15.804 was +20.580 seconds behind the race’s first place finisher.
PREVIEW
While this week’s Sprint World Championships are for the elite athletes of today, new USA Canoe/Kayak Sprint High Performance Manager Michele Eray is tasked with providing a road map for medal-winning performances at future World Championships and Olympic Games.
Eray, a 2008 Olympic finalist in the women’s K-4 500m, comes to the U.S. from South Africa. She is also the reigning Surfski World Champion, which recently held its first World Championships.
Among her goals for the U.S. Sprint program are to strengthen the club system, recruit new paddlers and identify the young paddlers with the most potential. She will be visiting the hubs of sprint racing across the country.
“You still need numbers to come into the system because the bigger your base, the higher your peak, hopefully,” Eray said. “Talent recruitment and detection is going to be a big part of this job, and for that you need to travel, because you need to find people. We have some fantastic clubs and coaches doing great work at their places.”
She will be based in Oklahoma City, where an increasing number of young paddlers are moving to in order to take part in Oklahoma City University’s one-of-its-kind varsity kayak program.
“With a country as big as America, it’s a bit hard to run a program if you try and spread it out,” Eray said. “The idea behind this is to centralize everything and obviously Oklahoma is central. Plus we’ve got the best facility in the country, so it makes sense to run everything out of here, or somewhere else where there is an established club and coach system.”
In the Oklahoma City Boathouse District, athletes have the three essentials necessary for any elite paddler – coaching, equipment and water to train on. Eray adds that support from parents and the community are two other necessities for Olympic hopefuls.
Three of the U.S. athletes competing at the World Championships have migrated to Oklahoma City from Maine (Kaitlyn McElroy), California (Maggie Hogan) and Iran (Arezou Montamedi). But Eray knows that creating Olympians doesn’t happen overnight.
It took 16 years for the Lanier Canoe and Kayak Club to produce it’s first Olympian in Tim Hornsby (Atlanta, Ga.), who competed at the 2012 Games and is racing this weekend. The club is based at Lake Lanier, the site of the sprint racing for the Atlanta 1996 Olympics.
“As an athlete, you’re going to have to make a commitment,” Eray said. “If you want to do well, there is a lot of sacrifice involved. No one gets anywhere for free, there’s time and there’s effort. Paddling is a time sport, you don’t just start paddling and in a year you’re World Champion.”
You can learn more about the newest member of the USA Canoe/Kayak’s team by following Eray’s blog and Twitter account.
“We are looking forward to an exciting week of racing in Duisburg,” said USA Canoe/Kayak CEO Joe Jacobi. “Our goals vary from discipline to discipline and athlete to athlete but we see a great opportunity to see our program take a step forward over the next few weeks. I am grateful for the support of our coaches and staff on site as well as the leadership of our USA Canoe/Kayak Board Chair Bob Lally, who is attending his first Sprint and ParaCanoe World Championships.”
Click Here for the Lanier Canoe & Kayak Club
Headquartered in Oklahoma City, USA Canoe/Kayak is a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Canoe Federation. It governs the Olympic disciplines of Flatwater Sprint, Whitewater Slalom, the Paralympic discipline of Paracanoe and sanctions Freestyle, Marathon, Outrigger, Wildwater, Stand Up Paddle Board, Kayak Polo, Dragon Boat and Canoe Sailing in the United States. For more information about USA Canoe/Kayak, please visit us on the web at www.usack.org, on Twitter at @usacanoekayak and Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/USACanoeKayak.
