Music: {allcanada} Van Koeverden and Oldershaw Win Opening Heats

Friday, June 1, 2012

{allcanada} Van Koeverden and Oldershaw Win Opening Heats

MOSCOW - Adam van Koeverden and Mark Oldershaw won their opening heats Friday and advanced directly to finals at the third Sprint CanoeKayak World Cup in Moscow.

van Koeverden of Oakville, Ont., and Oldershaw of Burlington, Ont., were the only Canadian athletes to continue on to the finals in Moscow as part of their preparations for the Olympic Games.

van Koeverden posted a three minutes 37.3 seconds to win his heat in the K1 1,000-metre kayak event. He will race the final Saturday where he expects a tough race with Australia's Murray Stewart. Stewart won his heat today in a time of 3:40.2.

van Koeverden won a silver medal in K1 1000 at World Cup 2 in Duisburg, Germany last week and a bronze at World Cup 3 in Poznan, Poland the week before.

Oldershaw comfortably won his C1 1,000-metre canoe heat in a time of 4:08.2 to advance to Saturday's final. He was 2.3 seconds ahead of Russia's Viktor Melantyev, who finished second.

Oldershaw won the first World Cup in Poland and finished fourth in a very competitive field last week in Germany.