{"id":12583,"date":"2019-10-15T16:00:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T19:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=12583"},"modified":"2019-10-15T16:00:55","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T19:00:55","slug":"russell-spence-mackenzie-hughes-focused-on-tokyo-2020-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=12583","title":{"rendered":"Russell, Spence, MacKenzie, Hughes focused on Tokyo 2020 chances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Waverley-based club has potential to land four athletes on Canadian Olympic team<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WAVERLEY: <\/strong>For those who think there\u2019s an \u201coff-season\u201d for top competing canoe and kayakers, think again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike\n traditional sports like hockey, baseball, and basketball, being a \ncompetitive canoer and kayaker on the waters of Canada is a year-round \nsport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why despite fall and winter approaching, Cheema \nathletes Sloan MacKenzie, Michelle Russell, Craig Spence, and Marshall \nHughes continue to do their twice daily, 10-times a week training at the\n Waverley-based club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the colder weather coming means no on \nwater training, that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not at the club, which just \ncelebrated its 50th anniversary, training in the weight room. The \nathletes also head south to Florida for training with the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to try and push myself harder this year to get better results this year,\u201d said Sloan MacKenzie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The athletes at Cheema warm up Oct. 10 prior to their on the water training session under the tutelage and watchful eyes of coaches Mike Kerrivan and Anna Hetzler. (Healey photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Russell\n had an up and down season, with the downside being her broken \ncollarbone to begin the year. But qualifying the K4 boat for Tokyo \nturned the season around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big weight off your shoulders, a\n lot less stress,\u201d said Russell, of Fall River on knowing the K4 boat \nwas qualified. \u201cI have to go to the first set of trials in April in \nGeorgia and the K4 team is picked from those results.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hughes said\n it wasn\u2019t the best of his season as he wasn\u2019t fully involved with the \nworld championship team, however his season turned at the Pan Am Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\n had a great result in tying one of Canada\u2019s best results they ever had \nthere,\u201d said Hughes. \u201cIt gave me a lot of confidence moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because\n the four are on the Canadian teams radar\u2014with the potential to land \nspots for the 2020 Olympic games next year in Tokyo\u2014they will head to \nFlorida for training with Team Canada. They will join their mates from \nCheema in Florida again in March 2020 for their last tune up before \nCanadian Olympic trials happen in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacKenzie has earned an invite to train with Olympic athletes, which could lead to her being on the squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a rally great opportunity for me to train with them and it\u2019s a really good environment,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m super excited to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The athletes at Cheema warm up Oct. 10 prior to their on the water training session under the tutelage and watchful eyes of coaches Mike Kerrivan and Anna Hetzler. (Healey photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hughes had an interesting perspective on whether or not he makes the Olympic team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFour\n Canadian athletes that I\u2019ve trained with, that I\u2019ve grown up training \nwith, will be going so whether or not I go, I will be super excited for \nwhoever does go,\u201d said Hughes. \u201cI know I am going to be part of helping \nthem succeed or them helping me succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacKenzie said she\u2019s training 10 times a week, including before and after school at Lockview High, and once on Saturdays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s\n a lot to handle between school work with me being in Grade 12 and \nhaving a heavy school course load, but I\u2019m managing the best I can,\u201d \nsaid the 17-year-old Fall River resident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said if she were to make the Olympic team for Tokyo 2020, all her dreams would come true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\n never thought this experience would happen, especially this past \nsummer,\u201d she said. \u201cI was simply hoping to make Junior Worlds and I \nwould have been satisfied with that. If I were to make the Olympics that\n would be crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hughes said if the club landed all four at the Olympics, it would be quite the accomplishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf\n Cheema had a representative at every discipline at the Olympics, it \nwould be incredible,\u201d said Hughes. \u201cIt really shows how a small town \nlike Waverley and an incredible job Mike Kerrivan and Anna Hetzler have \ndone here. The amount of talent that is developed at Cheema is \nincredible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russell said there\u2019s lots of training on and off \nwater this fall and winter, including a team skiing trip. She said she\u2019s\n focused on working to make the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBased off last year, my \nfocus is to break less bones. That\u2019s a good start,\u201d said Russell with a \nchuckle. \u201cI just need to get bigger and fitter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do athletes like Hughes ever get an off-season?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, no definitely not,\u201d said Hughes with a laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If she did make the boat for Tokyo,m what would it mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it would validate all the work that I\u2019ve put in to this one thing, and have it pay off,\u201d said Russell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She credited Cheema for the support she\u2019s received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t have done any of this without them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waverley-based club has potential to land four athletes on Canadian Olympic team WAVERLEY: For those who think there\u2019s an \u201coff-season\u201d for top competing canoe and kayakers, think again. Unlike traditional sports like hockey, baseball, and basketball, being a competitive canoer and kayaker on the waters of Canada is a year-round sport. That\u2019s why despite fall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12,21],"tags":[400,737,2,402,403,739,827],"class_list":["post-12583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","category-sports","tag-cheema","tag-craig-spence","tag-fall-river","tag-marshall-hughes","tag-michelle-russell","tag-sloan-mackenzie","tag-tokyo-2020-olympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}