Sydenham paddlers medal at Ontario Trillium Provincial Championships

Jeff Green | Aug 21, 2013

Sydenham Lake Canoe Club may be small, but its young paddlers have succeeded at putting Sydenham on Ontario’s map. The club’s five competitive U13 athletes all qualified for the Ontario Trillium Provincial Championships in at least two K1, K2, C1, and C2 events.

Sydenham Lake Canoe Club may be small, but its young paddlers have succeeded at putting Sydenham on Ontario’s map. The club’s five competitive U13 athletes all qualified for the Ontario Trillium Provincial Championships in at least two K1, K2, C1, and C2 events. “These are the best overall results that the club has had in the last four years”, says Coach Jack Fenlong, “We are very proud that each paddler got a chance to participate at the provincial level”.

The Trillium Sprint Racing Championships 2013 Canoe and Kayak regatta was held at the Rideau Canoe Club in Ottawa on Aug 18. Athletes Rhiannon Murphy, Harmonie Ruttan, George Willes, Ian Ramzy and Sebastien L’Abbe all qualified to compete in the U13 all-Ontario competitions. Murphy came in 2nd and won a silver medal in her U13 K1 100m events and 3rd and won a bronze medal in the C1 100m events. Ruttan came in 5th in her U13 C1 100m event L’Abbe placed second and won a silver medal the U13 K1 1000m event. Ramzy placed 4th in U13 K1 100m. Both, Ruttan and Murphy, and Willes and L’Abbe did their personal best in their K2 500 m event.

The club attributes its success this year to a recent restructuring. In 2013, Sydenham Lake Canoe Club Board of Directors decided to refocus its programs to put more of an emphasis on the long term athletic development (LTAD) of its sprint paddlers. This season, the club replaced its five-year-old day camp program with Canoe Kids paddling lessons in order to put more focus on progressive skill development so that when paddlers reach the level where they decide to compete, they have the skills to do it. The club did not expect such immediate success in its competitive paddlers, but the athletes now understand that they need to focus on their long term success rather than the immediate goal of winning a medal, so the coaches are taking the time to help them improve their skill development.

Since most of the five competitive athletes have been paddling for over four years, their long term commitment to the sport is already beginning to pay off. “These paddlers understand now what is involved in order to succeed in a sport”, says coach Jack Fenlong, “They know that they won’t achieve their personal best unless they get out on the water and commit themselves to a regular summer and off-season cross training schedule”. “Judging from how much our new paddlers enjoyed the Canoe Kids program this summer, we are hoping that we will have more young paddlers coming up the rank, who would like to try paddling in the regatta too next summer” says Fenlong