Jessica Groeneveld is off to the races having scored a coveted spot on the inaugural elite Canadian kayak singles team. Even though this will be her sixth time representing the country, the qualifying races at the Minden Wildwater Preserve May 26-27 were no picnic.
“This year was exciting just due to the river flooding and not knowing where we were going to race,” she said. “They decided to still hold the race at double the volume of water we would normally race on.”
To make the elite team a female paddler must be 120 per cent off the top man's running time. So if the number 1 guy completes the race in 100 seconds, the female racers would need a time of 120 seconds or less to make it – up from 125 in previous years.
“I'm the only girl on the national team,” she said. “I get to race all the world cups and world championships for Canada.”
As wild as the waters were during her national qualifying event, Groeneveld has a schedule that rushes faster than whitewater rapids. In June she'll hit the first stop of the world cup in Cardiff, Wales, and the second leg in Augsburg, Germany. In July she'll head to La Seu D'Urgell, Spain for part three of the tour. She'll be back in Alberta for the national championships in Kananaskis, before world cup finals in Bratislava, Slovakia in mid-August.
Groeneveld grew up in Innisfail learning how to paddle at the pool and at lakes around the area. As a kinesiology student at SAIT Polytechnic she spent the winter dryland training with Haley Daniels, Adrian Cole and Coach Michael Holroyd, coach of Alberta Slalom Canoe Kayak, and credits them with her success.
“We peak for this race,” she said of the qualifying competition, which is usually the first big event on the calendar. “We make sure we're at our best.”
Winners are calculated based on who has the lowest score when the best three of four races over the weekend are added together. Paddlers will get no points added for coming in first, one point for second place and two for a third-place finish.
Because Groeneveld won both her Saturday heats as well as her first Sunday race she was in the enviable position of having zero pressure on her last run.
“I don't normally get the opportunity to go in a race where I don't have to worry about the outcome,” she said. “I mainly took it as more fun because I really had nothing riding on it. I took a bunch of risks I usually wouldn't in a race.”
Now as she preps for the world stage her goal is to make the semifinals – something that's eluded her for too long, she notes.
“The sport is so much more developed in Europe,” she said. “I think it will be a challenge but that will be my goal.”
