Canada’s Katie Vincent races to 3 gold medals on final day of sprint canoe worlds

Winning three gold medals on the final day of the world championships has become a tradition for Canadian sprint canoeist Katie Vincent.

The Mississauga, Ont., native raced to a trio of world titles at the 2023 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships on Sunday, topping the podium in the women’s C1 500m, women’s C1 5,000m and mixed C2 500m events in Duisburg, Germany — all non-Olympic disciplines.

The 27-year-old achieved the same feat last year on home waters, topping the world podium in three events on the final day of competition in Dartmouth, N.S.

“It’s the perfect way to finish off the championships, and even though they are non-Olympic events they are still really competitive,” Vincent said.

She secured an Olympic quota spot for Canada on Saturday alongside� Sloan MacKenzie in the women’s C2 500 event, which saw the duo capture bronze. Vincent also earned bronze in the same event at the Tokyo Olympics with Laurence Vincent Lapointe, who retired last year.

Vincent broke two bones in her arm in a cycling accident three months and two weeks before the world championships, forcing her to miss out on preparation time while recovering.

“I was off the water for more than four weeks, pretty much all of June, so we knew we had eight weeks to prepare on the water, so it’s just nice to perform and show that it didn’t hold us back and we were able to still be at our best,” Vincent said.

Dartmouth’s Connor Fitzpatrick was Vincent’s partner in the mixed C2 500 race as the duo successfully defended their world title. Their time of one minute 45.771 seconds earned Vincent’s first gold medal of the day.

She now has nine gold and three bronze medals at the world championships, dating back to 2017 in Račice, Czech Republic.

3 more medals

Canadian paddlers added a silver and two bronze medals to the country’s tally in Duisburg on Sunday.

Ottawa’s Madeline Schmidt, 28, captured silver in the women’s K1 5,000 race, finishing just 1.255 seconds behind gold medallist Estefania Fernandez of Spain (22:45.357) for her first world championship medal.

Mackenzie, along with Edmonton’s Sophia Jensen, Jacy Grant of Wellington, N.S., and Julia Lilley Osende of Dartmouth, claimed bronze in the women’s C4 500m event.

Their time of 01:48.143 was enough to edge the Hungarian squad by 0.618 seconds. China took bronze ahead of Germany.

The 38-year-old Ottawa native earned bronze in the women’s KL1 200 race on Sunday, having previously won silver in the women’s VL2 200 on Friday while earning a Paralympic quota spot for Canada. She achieved the same results at last year’s worlds.

Canada finished third in the medal standings at the sprint canoe world championships with three gold, two silver and two bronze.

No country earned more gold medals than Canada, with Germany leading the table with three gold, five silver and six bronze, and Spain finishing second with three gold, five silver and five bronze.

Canadian Para canoeists took home three medals, with Erica Scarff adding silver in the women’s VL3 200m on Friday.

The competitions ran from Aug. 23 to Aug. 27.