Stanley Netherton and Ivan Strashenko were among the Kamloops Canoe and Kayak Club’s big winners at the Canadian Sprint Canoe Kayak Championships, which wrapped up earlier this month in Sherbrooke, Que.
The duo won gold in the under-17 two-man kayak (K2) 1,000-metre race. Netherton trains full-time with the Kamloops club. Strashenko is from Burnaby.
Netherton and Strashenko fell .018 seconds short of gold in the men’s U17 K4 1,000m race, along with teammates Matao Buist of the KCKC and Thomas Duff of Nanaimo.
The B.C. boat was edged by Nova Scotian paddlers in one of the most exciting events at nationals. High-speed film was reviewed and showed there was less than three centimetres separating the teams.
Spencer Robinson and Michael Lanyon, both of whom belong to the KCKC, won silver in the men’s U19 K4 1,000m, along with Strashenko and Cameron Antifave of Nanaimo.
Lanyon and Robinson were ninth in the men’s U19 K2 1,000m.
Abigail Donaldson, 17, and Emma Guertin, 16, of the KCKC placed ninth in the women’s U19 K2 200m. Aiden Tabata also represented the KCKC at nationals.
Stanislav Marek coaches the Kamloops paddlers.
Lanyon went on to compete at the International Canoe Federation Canoe Marathon World Championships, which ran from Sept. 6 to Sept. 9 in Prado Vila Verde, Portugal.
He raced in the U23 K1 division, in which athletes attempted to travel 26.2 kilometres, which included seven laps and six portages.
Lanyon finished the gruelling event in 22nd place.
"It was some of the hardest two hours of my life," Lanyon said. "There was a lot of suffering, especially on the portages."
Gold-medallist Jon Vold of Norway finished the race in one hour, 53 minutes and 26.37 seconds, edging Marcel Paufler of Germany, who clocked in .56 seconds behind Vold.
