GAINESVILLE - Two members of the Lanier Canoe and Kayak Club will be among those racing on their home course for U.S. teams in the Olympic canoe-kayak qualifier that gets underway on Lake Lanier Thursday.
21-year-old Sonrisa Reed will be racing in the women's K-4 (kayak) 500 meter event. 23-year-old Ty Hagler will race in the men's K-4 500 (kayak) meter event.
Reed's first race will be at 2:00 Thursday afternoon; Hagler's at 4:20 that day.
The program for Lanier Canoe 2003, the 33rd International Canoe Federation's Flatwater Racing World Championships, says Reed was introduced to sprint kayaking as a volunteer boat holder during the 1996 Olympic canoe and kayak events here here.
"As an Olympic volunteer I was able to spend some time with the Olympic athletes," Reed says. "As I got to know them a little bit, I realized that there wasn't as big of a gap between them and me as I had thought, because, even though I could hardly keep a sprint boat up at the time, they had all been kids once, too, and started out the same way."
Reed notes that this week she will be racing with some of those Olympians whose boats she held seven years ago as a 14-year-old.
Hagler began kayaking in 1995, according to the program, with the inception of the Lanier Canoe and Kayak Club and was also an Olympic volunteer boat holder.
"After spending my first two years at (Georgia) Tech trying to train on my own, I became discouraged, and began to doubt my original dreams," Hagler says. "It wasn't until we started a college team at Georgia Tech that I was able to enjoy the training again as a part of a team environment."
Friday
July 5th, 2024
2:46PM
