LAKE LANIER, Georgia — World and Olympic champion Adam van Koeverden of Oakville, Ont., and Mark Oldershaw of Burlington, Ont., were two of the four athletes to complete sweeps on Sunday at the Canadian team Olympic selection trials.
Van Koeverden, who assured himself a nomination to the Olympic team on Saturday with his victory in the 1,000 metres, took the K-1 (kayak singles) 500 Sunday in 1:46.590. Angus Mortimer of Ottawa was second.
Richard Dober of Trois-Rivieres, Que., and Andrew Willows of Gananoque, Ont., also notched a second K-2 win taking Sunday's 500 while Mortimer, Rhys Hill of Ottawa, Brady Reardon of Burlington and Chris Pellini of Mississauga, Ont., were the K-4 500 winners.
Oldershaw had another tough battle with Thomas Hall of Pointe-Claire, Que., winning for the second straight day by less than a second in the C-1 (canoe singles) 500 final.
Andrew Russell of Dartmouth, N.S., and Gabriel Beauchesne-Sevigny of Trois-Riveres, Que., were also two-for-two on the weekend taking Sunday's C-2 500.
In the women's kayak 500-metre races the victors were Karen Furneaux of Waverley, N.S., in the K-1, Kristin Gauthier of Ottawa and Mylanie Barre of Lac-Beauport, Que., in the K-2 and Furneaux, Gauthier, Genevieve Beauchesne-Sevigny of Trois-Rivieres and Emilie Fournel of Lachine, Que., in the K-4.
Van Koeverden was able to lock up the nomination because his gold and silver medal performances at the world championships last year put him a position of needing only a victory this weekend to get the nomination. The rest of the races this weekend helped determine teams for the Pan American Championships May 15-17 in Montreal -which is the continental qualifier to determine team spots at the Games — and assignments for the World Cup events this summer which will impact the final Canadian team selections.
''The performances this weekend were very strong and show we have a lot of depth," said Graham Barton, the sprint high performance director for CanoeKayak Canada. "It was nice to see the young kids challenge the veterans and we wound up with some close races.
''I think we have a real shot to get a spot in every event at the continental qualifier."
