Dartmouth, NS (August 6, 2022) – Two bronze medals for Canada on day 3 of the ICF Sprint Canoe and Paracanoe World Championships at Lake Banook in Dartmouth Nova Scotia.
Two-time Olympian Andréanne Langlois (Club de Canoë-Kayak de Vitesse de Trois Rivières) and Toshka Besharah-Hrebacka (Rideau Canoe Club) celebrated their new crew partnership in the women’s kayak today with a bronze medal in K2 200m event.
At 19 years old, Toshka is making her first mark at the senior international level while also inspiring a veteran teammate to rediscover her love for paddling.
“We both learn different things from each other,” said 29-year-old, Langlois. “It has brought back the spark in me that sometimes you might lose in your sport when you forget how much fun paddling can be, and for that, I am very grateful to Toshka.”
Both paddlers raced in the K4 500m event one hour prior to their bronze medal finish in the K2 event.
“The turn-around time wasn’t as difficult as expected,” said Besharah-Hrebacka. “We are both extremely confident in our crew and in our ability to throw down a 200m race. The biggest challenge was calming ourselves from all the excitement before our next race.”
The duo will be back on the start line on Sunday to contest the K2 500m A final at 12:47pm.
Canadian Paralympian Brianna Hennessy (Ottawa River Canoe Club) paddled her way to her second medal in Dartmouth, capturing bronze in the KL1 200m event. Brianna also earned a silver medal in VL2 200m event yesterday.
In Tokyo, Hennessy’s top finish was fifth in the VL2 200-metres, just 1.05 seconds off the podium.
“I don’t think it’s hit me yet and I think it’s going to take a couple of days,” said Hennessy. “I’m known to be slow off the start and my coach calls me the ‘comeback kid’ so it’s in the last 100m where I really try and ramp it up and catch up to all the amazing athletes here. I am truly humbled and can’t really believe I did this.”
Team Canada had many other notable results today including a 5th place finish for the men’s K4 team, 5th for women’s C2 200m, and 5th in women’s C1000m.
Team Canada will race in 15 finals tomorrow on the last day of World Championship racing on Lake Banook. Live streaming is available at CBC Sports and Planet Canoe.
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Colleen Coderre
ccoderre@canoekayak.ca