A team of outrigger canoe paddlers from British Columbia in Canada spent a week at a training camp in Durham before going on to win gold medals at the World Championships at Dorney Lake between August 8th and 16th.
The paddlers from the Powell River Outrigger Canoe Society were part of a Salish Sea squad that won two gold and two silver medals for Canada at the 2022 International Va’a Federation World Outrigger Sprint Championships, helping Canada to third place in the medal table behind New Zealand and Hawaii.
After the cancellation of the 2020 World Championships in Hawaii the Dorney event was the first opportunity for the crew to defend the title they won representing Canada in the Masters 70+ Women’s division at the 2018 World Championships in Tahiti.
The team is coached by Mike Matthews, a former Durham ARC oarsman who has lived in British Columbia for many years, who competed with the Club in the 1970s, achieving notable success as a member of the DARC eight that finished 35th in the 1972 Head of the River Race – the first time since 1958 that the club had entered the event. The crew on that occasion was Kim Metcalfe, Tom Bishop, Mike Matthews, Fred Snowdon, Ian Shepherd, Bill Grant, Geoff Potts, John Appleby and cox Andy Jaggard.
Club facilities were made available for the training camp which was arranged through contact with the Three River Serpents Dragonboat and Outrigger Club who also entered crews for the Dorney Lake Championships, taking 3rd place in the Masters 40 Women V6 1000 metres, while June Davison on her first appearance set a personal best time in finishing 7th in the heat of the Masters 60 Women V1 500 metres.
Photos from Powell River Peak.
Salish Sea on a training outing in Durham