Second-day action included the 500m races.
"Another blazing hot day and it was full of blisteringly fast events," said U.S. National Senior Team Head Coach Guy Wilding. "Some great racing across both senior and junior kayak and canoe. The athletes have done a lot of racing over the first two days but have shown great resilience to [get] back up and perform extremely well."
Maggie Hogan (San Diego, Calif.) won gold medals in the Women's K-1 500m and then teamed up with Ariel Farrar-Wellman (Bethesda, Md.) to take the K-2 500m title. Hogan was followed by Kaitlyn McElroy (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Jen Burke (San Diego, Calif.), Emily Vinson (Gainesville, Ga.) and Farrar-Wellman.
McElroy and Burke place second in K-2 500m. McElroy, Burke, Vinson and Nicole Mallory (West Henrietta, N.Y.) finished first in K-4 500m. The same K-4 boat will represent the U.S. at the 2011 Sprint World Championships in Szeged, Hungary, Aug. 17-21.
In Men's K-1 500m, Cuban paddler Carlos Garcia placed first with Luke Michael (Kailua, Hawaii), Morgan House (Gainesville, Ga.), Jake Michael (Kailua, Hawaii) and Cedric Bond (Tacoma, Wash.) following in sequential order. Since Garcia is an "international" competitor and ineligible to win National Championships, Luke Michael was awarded the title.
The Michael Twins then finished first in the K-2 500m race. After two days of racing, Luke Michael has racked up national titles in all five events offered so far.
Lanier Canoe and Kayak Club, the host team, dominated the Men's C-1 500m event. Hometown paddlers Robert Finlayson (Gainesville, Ga.), Ben Hefner (Gainesville, Ga.) and Claudiu Ciur placed 1-2-3, respectively. Hefner and Ian Ross (Bethesda, Md.) finished first in C-2 500m with Finlayson and Alejandro Schwedhelm (Potomac, Md.) coming in second.
(File photo. Courtesy usack.org)
http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/8/240907