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32 Sports Oakville Beaver www.aplushomes.ca Adam Campbell Broker of Record 905-844-4444 B R O K E R A G E I N D E P E N D E N T LY O W N E D A N D O P E R AT E D SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2008 In golden form Adam van Koeverden dominates field in Olympic kayaking heats Adam van Koeverden is living up to the advance billing. The Burloak Canoe Club paddler, expected to contend for gold in both the kayaking singles (K-1) 500-metre and 1,000m events at the Olympic Summer Games, easily won his heats in both distances earlier this week -- including posting a worldrecord time in the 500m. Van Koeverden, the defending Olympic champion in the 500m, completed yesterday's (Tuesday's) heat in one minute, 35.554 seconds, beating his own world record of 1:35.630. The Loyola grad feels he can go even faster. "I raced that like a heat, not a final," he told CBC. "If I raced that like a final, I could have probably expected another halfsecond. Maybe that's saying a lot considering the time, but that's how I feel." Ironically, while van Koeverden's victory in Monday's 1,000m heat earned him a spot in that event's final, he will still have to compete in the 500m semifinals tomorrow (Thursday). He finished the 1,000m heat in 3:29.622. The 1,000m final will be held Friday, with the 500m final scheduled for the following day. Van Koeverden earned bronze in the 1,000m four years ago in Athens. Other Burloak paddlers also advance On Monday, Burloak's Brady Reardon, Chris Pellini and the men's K-4, which also includes Rhys Hill and Angus Mortimer, advanced to today's semifinal after finishing fifth in their heat in a time of 3:6.811. Mark Oldershaw, also a member of Burloak, finished second in his canoeing singles 500m heat to qualify for tomorrow's semis. He came on strong in the final metres to finish in a time of 1:48.817. Aliaksandr Zhukovski of Belarus won the heat in 1:48.669 to advance straight to the Saturday final. Boston Pizza in Oakville will be hosting live showings of the canoe and kayak finals beginning at approximately 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday. LAURENT FIEVET / AFP/GETTY IMAGES HEATING UP: Adam van Koeverden powers through the water on his way to victory in yesterday's (Tuesday's) 500-metre K-1 heat at the Olympic Summer Games in China. The Burloak Canoe Club paddler also won his 1,000m heat Monday and is a medal favourite in both events. Abbey Park runner claims 400-metre gold at national meet Michael Trnkus' decision to keep running throughout the summer certainly paid off. The 17-year-old Abbey Park High School student won 400-metre gold at the recent Legion Canadian Youth Athletic Championships for 17and-under athletes in Sherbrooke, Que., and attributes his national crown to the extra work he's done with the University of Toronto Track Club. "The last couple years, I haven't really gone past high school competition. This year, I made it a goal to continue into the summer," Trnkus said. "It provided me with better meets and more competition, which definitely helped me to decrease my times and get better." Trnkus finished the 400m final in 48.87 seconds, tying his personal-best time that he'd recorded two months earlier. He was the favourite going into the event, having posted the fastest previous time of all the runners in the field. "There was definitely an expectation to win," said Trnkus. "It's a little more pressure, but just something you deal with. To go into a race being a favourite and then performing well increases your confidence even further." So did a fifth-place showing at the national junior (19-and-under) meet in British Columbia a couple weeks earlier, where Trnkus was shooting for a top-10 effort. "I was very happy with that finish," said Trnkus, who ran a time of 49 seconds at the junior nationals. "It propelled me into the final meets of the season." The national gold is the latest medal for Trnkus, who was part of Abbey Park's medal-winning 4x400m teams at the past two provincial high school championships (silver in 2007, bronze this year) and claimed individual bronze in the junior boys' 400m last year. Judging by his success this summer, Trnkus appears to have established himself as a gold-medal threat for next spring's Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) meet. It also increases his chances of landing a track scholarship in the future. "With a combination of decent grades and good running times, you can market yourself to some of the schools," Trnkus said. "You never know what you can get. It's never one of those things that they come to see you; you've got to make the effort to be noticed by colleges." Trnkus added a fifth-place finish in the 200m race, finishing in 22.45 seconds -- 0.23 seconds faster than his previous best. Abbey Park teammate Corinne Smith also competed at the youth nationals, placing 13th in the 400m with a time of 59.58 seconds. -- Jon Kuiperij CANADIAN CHAMP: Abbey Park student Michael Trnkus won gold in the 400-metre run at the recent Legion Canadian Youth Athletic Championships in Quebec, posting a time of 48.87 seconds at the 17and-under meet. Trnkus also finished fifth in the 200m, and posted personal-best times in both distances. CHRIS KORNACKI / OAKVILLE BEAVER