Canada struck gold on Saturday at the 2017 World Canoeing Championships in Racice, Czech Republic. Katie Vincent of Mississauga, Ontario and Laurence Vincent-Lapointe of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec won the gold medal in the women’s pairs in 500m canoeing.
Vincent and Vincent-Lapointe posted a time of 1:56.752. They beat the Russian team of Irina Andreeva and Olesia Romasenko by the slimmest of margins as they posted a time of 1:57.264. The Belarussian duo of Kamila Bobr and Alena Nazdrova won the bronze medal with a time of 1:57.858.
Vincent and Vincent-Lapointe earned a medal by 2.05 seconds. Kincso Takacs and Virag Balla of Hungary finished in fourth place with a time of 1:58.802.
Laurence Vincent-Lapointe’s story is actually remarkable. She could be considered Canada’s top athlete that nobody has ever heard of. She is a four-time world champion in the women’s 200m canoeing and now a three-time world champion in women’s pairs 500m canoeing. However Vincent-Lapointe’s events have never been given full Olympic medal status until now. That is because women’s 200m canoeing and women’s pairs 500m canoeing were added to the Olympic program for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo earlier this month.
Vincent becomes the third different partner Vincent-Lapointe has won a gold medal with at the World Canoeing Championships in the women’s 500m pairs. At the 2011 World Canoeing Championships in Szeged, Hungary, she won with Mallorie Nicholson of Oakville, Ontario and at the 2013 World Canoeing Championships in Duisburg, Germany, she won with Sara-Jane Caumartin of Otterburn, Quebec.