Four Chilliwack Centre for Excellence athletes have qualified for Canoe Kayak Canada’s U19 and U23 national teams in single person canoe (C1) and kayak (K1) slalom whitewater paddling.
Canadian team trials were held jointly with US team trials last weekend (April 12-14) in Oklahoma.
Chilliwack’s Isabel Taylor made the women’s U19 team in K1 and Chilliwack’s Austin Atkins made the men’s U23 crew in K1.
Port Moody’s Finn Wakeling and Vancouver’s Jakob Kryworuchko both earned spots on the men’s U19 C1 team.
All four train on the Chilliwack River (Tamihi Rapids) under the watchful eye of coach CCE coach Brendan Curson.
Their qualification process actually started last year at the 2018 Canadian Nationals in Alberta where team members achieved the percentage race time required to qualify for the U19 and/or U23 teams.
In Oklahoma, the task was to finish top three in their respective sport/age/gender category in a competition that inputted their best three times through four heats into a points-based system.
The U19 and U23 Canadian teams train in Europe from mid-June to mid-July and will compete at Junior/U23 World Championships, taking place July 16-21 in Krakow, Poland.