Hello!

It’s been a crazy few weeks… finishing high school, prom/graduation, trials on Lake Banook and, of course, a week in Rio de Janeiro! Jenna Marks and I raced C-2 for Canada at the Pan-American Canoe Championships and finished first in our three races (1000m, 500m and 200m). Mallorie Nicholson raced the three C-1 distances and swept the field as well!

It was an incredible trip. There is so much to look at no matter where you are. The mountains surrounding the race course, Christ the Redeemer (a 120-ft statue overlooking the whole city), favela villages, beaches, forests, animals, graffiti art, the list goes on! My disposable camera pictures won’t do Rio justice, that’s for sure.

But back to paddling. The team was great, everyone raced hard and Canada spent lots of time on the podium. After the regatta a coach from one of the other countries was very excited to get a picture with the three Canadian “canoeistas”, so it feels great to have made an impression on the international level.

Jenna and I came away from the competition happy to have been given the opportunity to race together again and to compete against new crews. We’re hoping it will prepare us even more for trials in Montreal where we’ll find out whether we secure a spot on the Senior Worlds team. There’s not much time left to prepare so that means it’s back to training hard on Lake Banook.

Thanks so much to everyone who made the trip possible- I had a fantastic time and if all goes well in Montreal, hopefully Jenna and I will see the South American girls again on Lake Banook in August!

Thanks for reading,

Maria Halavrezos

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Blogs, Women in canoe.
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