The Lanier Canoe 2003 Organizing Committee welcomes women canoe athletes to exhibition events at the Lanier Canoe 2003 ICF Flatwater Racing World Championships and qualitifer for the 2004 Olympic Games Sept. 10 - 14, 2003.

Check out the brochure for this event!

The Lanier Canoe 2003 organizing committee is pleased to host Women’s Canoe events as exhibition races at the 33rd ICF Flatwater Racing World Championships in Gainesville, Georgia. This is the first time Women’s Canoe exhibition events have been offered at a Flatwater Racing World Championships.

The first international event including Women Canoe events was the 1999 Lake Lanier Sprint Challenge, followed by the 2001 Wachovia World Cup, also held at Lanier, and the 2001 and 2002 Pan Am Championships held in Mexico and Brazil.

The Women Canoe discipline is strongest in Canada where it has been included in National Championship competition since 1997. The US followed suit including Women in canoe at the National Championships for the first time in 2002. Sheila Kuyper started the movement in Canada in 1995. Heather McNie from Canada is chairing this committee for the Lanier Canoe 2003 World Championships. Exhibition races will be held in the standard distances of C-1 200, 500 and 1000 metres as well as C-2 distances still to be determined. Women’s Canoe events have never been included in World Championship or Olympic competition.

These races will showcase the hard work and effort by national federations to include women in all aspects of our sport. We hope that they will also inspire and challenge other national federations to join in this opportunity for tremendous growth in the sport of Canoe.

Each national federation is limited to one entry per event through the July 27 numeric deadline. After this date if 18 C-1 and 9 C-2 entries are not filled, countries with additional entries will be accepted based on the best time posted at a national qualifier. Additional entries will be equally divided among the national federations requesting them. All entries will be closed after August 27. The event will be cancelled if 16 C-1 and 8 C-2 entries are not reached. August 27 is the Nominal entry deadline and will be the final deadline to determine if the events will be offered. The events offered will be Open C-1 200m, Open C-1 500m, Open C-1 1000m and Open C-2 200m.

Each national federation is invited to participate by sending one C-1 entry per event and one C-2 crew. After the July 27 numeric deadline, additional entries will be considered based on the criteria above. Athlete selection will be based on national qualifying races as determined by their national federation. A benchmark time of 2:45 for C-1 500m is suggested as a quideline for coaches and athletes.

Any national association or individual athlete who may find it difficult to finance their participation should contact Heather McNie for WomenCan at fax 770 287-3444 for information on assistance packages. You can also reach Heather McNie, Chair for Lanier Canoe 2003 Women in Canoe at hmcnie@sympatico.ca for more information.

The registration form on www.LanierCanoe2003.org will have athlete registration information soon. Please go there for housing and ticket information.

We look forward to seeing an international group of young women in canoes in Georgia in September 2003!