John Gregory | @gregiej | Sportscene - Top flight canoe slalom returns to the Gull River in Minden Hills, Ontario, Canada next July for the 17th Pan American Games. The race represents a throw-back to the by-gone days of Canoe Slalom on the developed whitewater rivers like Tryweryn, Savage and others.

“It is very exciting that the Minden Wild Water Preserve will host the TO2015 Canoe Slalom event and propel Canoe Slalom into the Pan Am Games. The inclusion of Canoe Slalom in the Pan Am Games program is providing a springboard for South American paddling nations to establish their National Team programs. This is a significant opportunity for the ICF to expand its reach throughout South America. We are thrilled to host the Americas and to compete in the 2016 Olympic Qualification event on a Canadian river!” says James Cartwright, Slalom High Performance Manager at CanoeKayak Canada.


The Gull River site developed into a whitewater channel in 1972 has been used for three World Cup races during the 1990’s. Canada has yet to win a medal on its home Minden Wild Water Preserve. David Ford represented Canada at each of these World Cup races, where he recalls finishing in the top 5 in two of the World Cups.

Molly Killingbeck, Manager Sport at Toronto 2015 described the building excitement and planning in bringing canoe slalom to the Toronto Pan Am Games; “Canoe Slalom debuts at the 2015 Pan Am Games and we are thrilled to host the competition on the natural environment of the Gull River with its many challenges. This is a great opportunity to showcase this exciting paddlesport as it continues to develop in the Americas region. TO2015 will set the standards for Lima and future host nations to ensure canoe slalom remains on the competition schedule for upcoming Pan Am Games.”

The site creates some challenges for spectators, officials and athletes as the river banks are heavily wooded. The full allocation of 500 spectator tickets has already been sold out. British K1W World Champion and Minden World Cup race winner Lynn Reys (nee Simpson) describes racing here “Minden was always one the most challenging courses of the early 90s.  Within the first 6 gates you had to nail the breakouts on the first fall otherwise you were never going to place.  Even then you still had 2 other tricky drops to negotiate.  And if that was not enough they put in 2 of 3 gates in at the end with a tricky S just to sap any last energy you did not have.  It was one of those fantastic adrenalin courses in beautiful surroundings and as I recall the sun was shining too.  And to top the weekend off my husband medalled silver behind Melvyn [Jones].  Great result for Team Reys.” 


There were 9 of the Pan American nations competing at the most recent Deep Creek Canoe Slalom Worlds. The event covers the 5 ICF World Championship classes (C1M, C1W, K1M, K1W & C2). Important for these nations is that the race also serves as the qualification for the Rio Olympic quota for nations and so other Central/ South American teams would also be expected to send athletes to race. One of the South American teams we have been following is Brazil. Their London Olympian, Ana Satila became Junior World Champion at the Penrith race in April. You can read 'An evening with the Brazilian Canoe Slalom Team' and 'Onwards and Upwards Brazilian Canoe Slalom Team'. Only four of the Pan Am countries competed in the last London2012 Olympic canoe slalom race at Lee Valley, namely; Argentina, Brazil, Canada and USA.

There have been some big changes in canoe slalom in the 17 years since the last World Cup race with shorter boats and shorter run times. The fastest time at the summer Minden test event was Alberta’s Ben Hayward with 86.67 seconds in K1M. “I am particularly excited about the Pan Am Games in Minden, not only because is it our sport’s first time in these games, but it is the first high profile event held in Canada during my involvement in kayaking.  We get the chance to race all over the world but it is very rare to see a Canadian flag waving on the shore.  It will be a surreal experience to get the chance to hear the home crowd and I think Minden will be a fantastic venue to debut our sport in the Pan Am’s”, noted Hayward. Hayward has had an impressive 2014 international season with a finish 7th in Prague and 10th in Tacen World Cup races.

Sportscene will bring you more insights early in 2015 once team selection policies are defined.

Photo credits:  Sarah Quart @gogolittlered, Balint Vekassy