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Carrie Johnson kayaks to Cup bronze
By Luke Dieker // USA Canoe Kayak // May 14, 2006
POZNAN, Poland -- Carrie Johnson (San Diego, Calif.) paddled her way to the bronze medal in women’s kayak in the 1000 meters Sunday at the Sprint World Cup #1 in Poznan, Poland. Johnson started out the race strong, leading for a moment at the start. Throughout the race, the top four boats exchanged the lead in what turned out to be a very fast final. At the line the Polish boat of Beata Mikolajczyk and the Russian boat of Juliana Salakhova pulled ahead slightly to take gold and silver. Johnson surged to ensure her finish in bronze.
“I am very proud of Carrie—she was awesome,” said US Head Coach Nathan Luce. “The level of women’s competition at the world level has really increased. You used to see a couple of breakaways in the finals but here everyone is crossing the line together, and the times are great.”
Johnson’s feat in the 1000 meters overshadows her other excellent finish in Poznan. On Saturday in the 500 meter distance she also did very well, finishing seventh with a time less than two seconds off the winner.
Also paddling on Sunday was Jeff Smoke (Buchanan, Mich.), where in the men’s kayak 1000 meter B Final, he paddled very well to finish second—11th overall. The men’s kayak singles--both the 500 meter and 1000 meter distances--receive the most entries and are the most tightly contested events at the regatta.
On Saturday Rami Zur (Newport Beach, Calif.) paddled in the men’s kayak 500 meter distance, and finished second in the B Final—11th overall. Zur is a specialist in the 500 meter distance, and has long been among the top in the world at this level. It was no surprise to see him having yet another great finish in international competition.
In the women’s K-4 500 meters, the US had another great finish, where the boat of Maggie Hogan (San Diego, Calif.), Morgan Feori (San Diego, Calif), Susannah Stucchio (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) and Lauren Bartlett (Kula, Hawaii) paddled to a third place finish in the B final—12th overall in the event.
“The athletes look great,” said Chris Hipgrave, High Performance Director for USA Canoe/Kayak. “They are confident, look good on the water and are ecstatic with their positive results. We just arrived in Europe less than a week ago, and none of the athletes have really had time to acclimatize yet. This is an excellent start for us, and we hope to build on this over the course of the summer’s events.”
For full results, photos and coverage of the event, visit the organizer’s website at: http://www.wcc.canoepcf.org/
Women’s K-1 1000 meters final results:
1. Beata Mikolajczyk, Poland, 3:58.337
2. Juliana Salakhova, Russia, 3:58.541
3. Carrie Johnson, USA, 4:00.131
4. Miriam Frenken, Germany, 4:00.419
5. Idem Josefa, Italy, 4:01.151
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