Pointe Claire paddler joins elite group

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI



If you think winning a medal at an International Canoe Federation Senior World Championship regatta is an easy chore, consider the following: only 13 Canadians have ever done so.

So it goes without saying that Pointe Claire native Tom Hall must have been pleased as punch at last August’s worlds in Szeged, Hungary when he joined that elite group. Hall, a 24-year-old member of the Pointe Claire Canoe Club (PCCC) who burst upon the scene in 1999 as a 17-year-old when he won gold for Canada in the C-1 1,000-metre event at the world junior championships in Croatia, paddled second on a Canuck crew boat that captured silver in the C-4 1,000-metre event, behind perennial powerhouse Germany. Among Hall’s crewmates, only Dmitri Joukovski had previously captured a medal at worlds. For the others, including Andrew Russell and Kyle Jeffrey, it was a first.

Even though the C-4 is not an Olympic event, and most knowledgeable observers will admit C-1 and C-2 races are showcase events for sprint canoeing, Hall said it was nothing less than an unbelievable feeling to finish second in the world.

“Sure, part of me wished I had earned the C-1 spot on the Canadian team at those world championships,� said Hall. “That was nagging me in the back of my head the whole time. But at the same time, when we crossed the line, exhausted and all before 60,000 people, it was unbelievable. It was a real adrenaline rush. It also earned Canada a little bit of respect among those powerful European teams.�

Besides winning silver at worlds, there were other positives this past year for Hall. He raced in Atlanta last April at national team trials, finishing second in the C-1 500-metre event, securing him a spot on the Canadian World Cup team. Then, at a World Cup regatta in Duisburg, Germany in May, he finished ninth in the C-1 500-metre race, an improvement over the year before, when he didn’t qualify for the final.

“I didn’t secure a spot on the C-1 boat for the world championships, which was disappointing,� he said. “But overall, I made progress, which is something my coaches and I were positive about.�

One of those is Mike Creamer, a former PCCC coach who also serves as an assistant coach with the national men’s kayak team under Mark Granger. If Hall has any hopes of beating out Mark Oldershaw for a place on the Canadian senior men’s team’s C-1 boat, said Creamer, he will have to improve his mental tactics, particularly on race days.

“Tom’s probably one of the most physically fit paddlers on the Canadian team,� said Creamer. “So there is no problem there. We’ll be doing technique work to try and improve efficiency in the water. He also has to go out there and simply lay it out on the line each time he races. Much like he did when won that gold medal as a junior.�

In the meantime, Hall continues to doggedly train and compete 12 months a year, much of the time away from Montreal. Spring and summer usually find him competing at Europe’s high-level regattas while the end of fall and most of the winter sees him training in the warmer climes of southern United States.

“That’s the tough part,� said Hall. “All the travelling is hard. I miss friends and family back home. However, hopefully it will all be worth it.�

Paddling note: While Hall was winning gold in the C-4 event at the world championships, another PCCC member, Andrew Willows, earned silver in the K-2 race. Willows, a Gananoque, Ont., native who moved to Montreal six years ago to study at McGill University and work with Granger, finished ninth in a K-4 boat at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.