WAVERLEY: The water on Lake Thomas was crystal clear Wednesday afternoon Aug. 2 as summer program athletes from Cheema participated in a coaching session offered by two national team members.
Craig Spence of Dartmouth and Windsor Junctions own Sloan MacKenzie hosted the coaching session for approximately 20 participants in the summer program at the Waverley-based club.
The two are athletes supported by CanFund this year helping them train for Olympic qualifying championship events coming up in mid-August in Germany with Team Canada.
To participate in the coaching session it was $10 each. The community stepped up and made donations that saw some at least 10 summer program participants who may not have been able to take part due to cost limitations be involved thanks to a donation. In all, MacKenzie and Spence had hoped for maybe $200/$300 raised. They got more than that.
“We had $1800 in donations which will go a long way in helping us train and be prepared for competitions,” said MacKenzie and Spence.
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While Spence was on the water leading the 20 participants in either canoes or kayaks, The Laker News’ Pat Healey joined MacKenzie in one of the motorized boats and headed out onto the slightly choppy waters on Lake Thomas in Waverley.
MacKenzie stayed behind the group shouting instructions to the few athletes who were in kayaks instructions. The techniques they were working on differed then that what Spence was having the canoers do as they went up Lake Thomas.
The two had the athletes do various training items to about the middle of Lake Thomas (if the trees nearby were bare one would have been able to see Old Creel Canoe & Kayak across from The Vegetorium.
From the looks on the faces of all the young athletes—about 90 per cent who were girls—and their conversations with mostly MacKenzie, but Spence too at times, they were all having fun and learning how to improve their technique to be better canoers/kayakers.
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MacKenzie was asked why her, and Spence were putting on the coaching session.
‘We want to give back to the community and the kids here at Cheema and to raise money for CanFund for sponsoring us,” she said.
Spence said CanFund has stepped up to sponsor the two athletes in their drive for excellence at competitions and hopes of making the Olympics.
“We wanted to also do something we enjoyed and that was practicing with the kids, teaching them, but also having fun and doing something for the community that has done so much to allow us to even get to this point,” said Spence.
He said the support from CanFund means a lot.
“It means we can do everything we need to be at the top level,” he said. “We know qualifying for Olympic spots are extremely difficult so to be able to get the proper nutrition; equipment; to be able to do training camps, etc.
“When we have support from CanFund we can do all those things which you can’t do without their support.”
VIDEO: From the waters of Lake Thomas, the participants were learning lots from two of the best in Canada, Sloan MacKenzie and Craig Spence.
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MacKenzie and Spence said they weren’t sure what to expect when they planned the coaching session.
“We weren’t sure if we would fill all the spots or even raise more than $300,” she said. “The community has been more than generous with their support as well for us.”
She said the support is out of this world.
“We could not have predicted this at all,’ she said. ‘It’s much more than we could have ever anticipated.”
Spence and MacKenzie leave on August 9 for a two-week training camp with Canada in France in preparation for the world championships in Germany at the end of the month. It’s an Olympic qualifier.
“Sloan and I are both racing Olympic qualifying events,” said Spence. “Our goal is to get those quotas/spots for Canada, and hopefully we’ll be able to fill them later.”
