Six athletes from the Ridge Canoe and Kayak Club are among the 33 named to the provincial team for 2017-2018.
The province’s top sprint and slalom canoe and kayak paddlers have been selected to Canoe Kayak BC’s team. Among the team members are national sprint kayak team member Brian Malfesi of the Ridge club, as well as his teammates from the Whonnock Lake-based team: Matthew Koehler, Alex Brent, Jia Kim, Cassidy MacPherson and Noah Said. They are coached by Peter Majewski.
The team also includes slalom world cup team members Austin Atkins and Finley Capstick of the Chilliwack Centre of Excellence.
The CKBC performance program recognizes and supports athletes who have a potential to make junior, under-23, senior development and national teams. These competitors have also shown a commitment to training to achieve these goals. Athletes were selected based on their results from the past season including national team selection, B.C. performance standard or nomination by the Coach’s Technical Committee.
“I’m excited with the athletes who have been nominated to the 2017-2018 Provincial Team,” said Blake Dalton, CKBC coach. “The team has a number of great leaders and the entire group is hungry to be competitive at next year’s Nationals.”
The team has already demonstrated success on the water in both the sprint and slalom disciplines. Malfesi has once again been nominated to the senior national team and is the BC team leader. Ridge paddlers Brent and MacPherson were impressive at the 2017 Canada Summer Games.
“The entire team has committed to train hard, be accountable and supportive of their teammates,” added Dalton. “Ultimately, we have a great bunch of athletes representing British Columbia and I look forward to a competitive season.”
The team members and their coaches receive sport science resources, participation in training camps and support for various regattas, trials and championships.
