Page 25 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 131

www.sportsenergynews.com Issue #131 December 2023
Zachary Zwanenburg wins Silver at 2023 Freestyle
Kayak World Championships: Columbus, GA
By Christine Ouellet is a thundering hydraulic known to
the local kayaking community as
achary Zwanenburg from ‘Good Wave.’ This powerful and
ZCornwall won, for the second unpredictable river feature served as
year in a row, the silver medal at the stage for the 2023 ICF Freestyle
the exciting Freestyle Kayak World Kayak World Championships. They
Championships. He came in 6th in came to showcase their skills in a
the C1 closed canoe. This was an battle for the title of best freestyle
event that drew over 400 athletes kayaker in the world.”
from over twenty countries, Zachary said, “I have been doing
This year’s winners were Landon this pretty much my whole life, I
Miller (USA) took the gold, can’t remember when I started but
followed by Zachary Zwanenburg I know I used to paddle with my
(CAN) with silver, and Philip Josef sister. My dad had a boat, and he
(GER) with bronze. would put us in front of his boat, and
we paddled around.”
He came in 6th in the C1 closed
canoe. In 2022, the competition was He was fourteen when he
held in Nottingham, UK, and in the entered his first competition in
OCX, Zachary said it was a tie for slalom C1 as a junior in 2012.
the first position, but he got second He then competed in the sport of
place because he was caught in the whitewater Kayaking and Canoeing
countercurrent of the wave. at a regional, provincial, national,
and international level, where he
This year, the competition
was currently one of the top three
took place on the Chattahoochee Canadian C1-ers in Canada.
River that serves as the boundary
between Phenix City, Alabama, 2013/2014 was Zachary’s last year
and Columbus, Georgia. Kathy as a Junior Slalom and Freestyle
Holcombe, from GearJunkie, Kayaking Athlete completing his
describes it as, “There is a junior career with the following
thundering stretch of whitewater Rankings: Canadian Ranking: 3rd
that bisects the downtown areas of place in C1 freestyle and 1st place
both cities with a small island on in C1 Slalom at Canadian Nationals,
the Columbus side that protrudes 9th at the 2014 Freestyle World
into rapids and is accessible by a Cups, and top 25 Junior Slalom
pedestrian bridge. Just off the island Athletes in the world!
Match Your Area Knowledge
Play Thom’s Trivia
1Q) Name the Canadian Prime Minister who played golf
at Augusta National Golf Course?
2Q) Which team won the 1966 High School Seaway
Valley Cheerleading competition?
3Q) Name the Royals forward who scored back-to-back
pre-Christmas week hat tricks in 1971? Page 40 for Answers extreme races down the waterfalls
25
Photo povmediaworks
Freestyle kayaking is “one of on la Rouge River in Quebec, and of
the most dynamic and entertaining course the Raisin River in Ontario
sports you have possibly never is a good way kick the season off.”
heard of. Athletes enclose
“I am out in the water training,
themselves in a small plastic boat finding waves to surf at my home
that is roughly 6 feet in length and
training spot in Valleyfield, and I
paddle onto a stationary whitewater also do flat water spring training
feature. In competition, they use on lake St. Laurent out of the
the power of the moving water to Stormont Yacht Club, who is one
throw as many different aerial and of my sponsors. I train with a few
acrobatic maneuvers as possible in
a 45-second ride. The bigger and buddies that are on the national
team in Valleyfield. Sometimes
more technical maneuvers score the when nobody is available, I train on
most points. The person with the my own, but it is better to train with
highest-scoring ride in the final heat, multiple people in the water at the
wins. It is a multigender discipline,
where women and men compete same time, for safety reasons.”
against each other in the same class. “In winter, it is basically physical
It requires extraordinary strength, training and some cross-country at
and female competitors are virtually the Summertown trails in Cornwall.
nonexistent.” I do my own thing fast skiing, flat
short sprints, or longer course in two
So, what does it take to be a hours. It’s not crazy fast.”
freestyle champion? Zachary said,
“It takes a lot of training, as soon For the kayak freestyle, he trains
as the ice melts in the spring, we in three categories: in K1, where you
begin training and up until middle are sitting down in a closed cockpit
November. In the spring, when the boat with a two blade paddle; in C1
water is high, we do a couple of it is the same style of closed cockpit,
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