Laurence Vincent-Lapointe of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec continued her excellent 2018 season this past weekend in Duisburg, Germany. On Saturday, Vincent-Lapointe teamed with Katie Vincent of Mississauga, Ontario to win gold in the women’s C2 500 metre sprint World Cup and then on Sunday won gold in the women’s C1 200 metre sprint World Cup.
Vincent-Lapointe and Vincent’s gold medal winning time on Saturday was a world record. They canoed to a winning time of 1:51.428. Yanan Ma and Mengya Sun of China won the silver medal with a time of 1:54.509. Lisa Jahn and Sophie Ulrike Koch of Germany won the bronze medal with a time of 1:57.905. Vincent-Lapointe and Vincent easily reached the podium by 8.445 seconds over Manaka Kubota and Teruko Kiriake of Japan, who finished in fourth place with a time of 1:59.873.
On Sunday, Vincent-Lapointe posted a gold medal winning time of 45.885 seconds. Kseniia Kurach of Russia won the silver medal with a time of 47.929 seconds. Katie Reid of Great Britain won the bronze medal with a time of 48.616 seconds. Vincent-Lapointe reached the podium by 2.824 seconds over Riska Andriyani of Indonesia, who was in fourth place with a time of 48.709 seconds.
The women’s C1 200 metre and women’s C2 500 metre events will be making its debut at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. At the moment one could argue that Vincent-Lapointe is Canada’s best chance for an Olympic medal, and she has a strong opportunity to come away with multiple medals.
