Canoe Kayak Canada – RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (August 7, 2016) – Both of Canada’s canoe slalom athletes missed advancing to the semi-finals by one spot on the opening day of competition at the Deodoro Whitewater Stadium. High winds in Rio de Janeiro delayed the start of the Canoe Slalom opening round of competition.

Cameron Smedley (Dunrobin, ON) finished fifteenth in the Men’s C1 and only the top fourteen athletes advance to the semis. Smedley had four seconds of penalties for touched gates in each of his two runs in the heats. The difficult off-set sequence section through gates 19 to 21 proved to be a crux move and pushed Smedley offline on both runs.

Athletes count their best of the two runs for semi-final qualification and Smedley was 2.05 seconds away from advancing.

Michael Tayler (Ottawa, ON) battled hard to stay on line through the difficult course but finished in a similar situation. He ranked sixteenth overall and a top-fifteen result was needed to advance to the semi-finals. Tayler was clean of penalties in his second run and was just 0.18 of a second from moving on to the semi-finals.

The top ranked kayaker from Australia, Lucien Delfour, also missed moving on to the semi-final and finished in 17^th position behind Tayler. This is Tayler’s second Olympic Games. At the London 2012 Games, he finished 20^th overall.

Results

Photos – credit Balint Vekassy / CKC

About Canoe Kayak Canada

Canoe Kayak Canada is the national governing body for competitive paddling in Canada. Canoe Kayak Canada has been one of Canada’s top performing summer sports having won an impressive count of 24 Olympic medals. Canoe Kayak Canada is a member-based organization which includes an intricate network of clubs as well as provincial, territorial and divisional paddling associations. Elite National Team athletes proudly represent Canada at various competitions around the globe – most notably the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Pan American Games, ICF World Cups as well as Junior, Under 23 and Senior World Championships. Follow Canoe Kayak Canada on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

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For more information:

Ian Miller
Communications and Marketing Officer, Canoe Kayak Canada
613.314.1352
imiller@canoekayak.ca