LCKC - 2009 USA Canoe/Kayak Sprint National Championships

20 Athletes from the Lanier Canoe & Kayak Club to Compete in World Championships

Little did anyone know that thirteen years after the Olympics came and went, that the Lanier Canoe & Kayak Club would still be working hard to develop Olympic caliber athletes and further an international sport in Georgia that did not exist before the 1996 Games.

The Lanier Canoe & Kayak Club in Gainesville will have seven of its senior athletes competing for the United States on the U.S.A. Senior National Canoe/Kayak Team. Anna Crawford, Robert Finlayson, Tim Hornsby, Morgan House, Emily Mickle, Alejandro Schwedhelm and Emily Vinson train year round in Georgia and in Chula Vista, California at the Olympic Training Center. They will be heading to Halifax-Dartmouth, Canada soon to compete at the 2009 International Canoe Federation World Senior Canoe Championships. Dartmouth’s Lake Banook will become a world stage August 12-16, 2009 as the most powerful paddlers on Earth come to Nova Scotia to battle it out. The largest international sporting event held in Atlantic Canada to date, the 2009 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships will welcome athletes, coaches and spectators from 75 countries, and will be televised on every continent to millions of viewers. More than 100,000 spectators from around the globe will witness the sheer athleticism of the fastest paddlers in the world.

Nine of the 15 Junior athletes selected to be on the U.S.A. Junior National Canoe/Kayak Team are from the Lanier Canoe & Kayak Club. They have been training most of the summer at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York and will be heading to Moscow, Russia on July 22, 2009 to compete at the 13th Annual International Canoe Federation Junior Canoe Sprint World Championships. Cannie Ash, Katelyn Dill, Ben Hefner, Jared McArthur, Chris Miller, Luke Potts, Zach Robertson, Chelsea Smith and Morgan Smith will put their hard work and training to the test during this bi-annual world competition, July 31-August 2, 2009.

Earlier this spring, the Lanier Canoe & Kayak Club hosted the U.S. Marathon National Team Trials where John DePalma, Anne Blanchard, Stanton Collins and Tanner Easterday (all members of the Lanier Canoe & Kayak Club) qualified for the U.S.A. National Marathon Team to compete at the 2009 International Canoe Federation Marathon World Championships in Crestuma, Portugal September 16-20, 2009.

Georgia can be proud of the accomplishments of the Lanier Canoe & Kayak Club. The Olympic Games came to Gainesville, Georgia in 1996, and the Olympic spirit is still here, on the shores of Lake Lanier.

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