Three LaSalle athletes to compete in Peking

Kayaker Andrew Willows and his team mate Richard Dober have excellent chances of stepping up to the Olympic podium for the K-2, 500 metre. The finals are on Saturday, August 23 at 4h35 in the morning.

A native of Gananoque, Ontario, Willows has been living in LaSalle for four years: “I came in Montreal to train with Mark Granger, national team trainer, and to study at McGill University. Outside training season, I work for the Pointe-Claire canoe club where I train and repair embarkations.” Once his athletic career ends, he’d like to become a construction entrepreneur.

Willows and Dober have exceptional chemistry. “We are confident of our capabilities. We won’t be completely satisfied if we don’t win a Gold medal. We are proud to be representing Canada and it’s a great joy for me to represent LaSalle. Since I turned 10, I managed to get good results. I nurtured competitive aspirations but what I enjoyed the most was being in the water and in the sunshine. I know deep down that I will be paddling the rest of my life.”

A native of Pierrefonds, 23-year old sprinter Hank Palmer has been living in LaSalle for a little over a year now. He faced the worst year of his life when he sustained injuries almost putting an end to his Olympic dream. Not having been able to participate in several competitions, he was no longer eligible for the $25,000.00 assistance that the Canadian government. He had to sell his car and to give up his apartment to go and live with his mother in LaSalle and to rely on sponsorships to regain his status as an elite athlete.

He qualified for the 4 X 100 m trials. The finals will take place on Friday, August 22 at 10h10. Hank is going to be working overtime so he can capture a spot among the world’s best sprinters and qualify for the China Olympic Games. “It’s a goal that I’ve set for myself ever since. I’ve been training for 15 years to achieve this goal. The sport of track and field requires an athlete to devote all of his energies and soul to it. I love sports that stimulate the physical and mental well-being of a person. The first time I saw sprinters, I thought they were such super humans; I started dreaming that I would become one of them.”

Palmer took third place in the 4 X 100 metre run during the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia in 2006.

Twenty-three year old swimmer Victoria Poon will participate in two Olympic swimming competitions. She qualified for the 50m freestyle swim and the 4 X 100 metre free style swim. She has experienced a whole gamut of emotions having been born in Hong Kong. “Because I arrived in Canada when I was 11 years old, I feel that there were two cultures living inside me. I feel the differences between these two. This is why the Olympic Games are of particular interest to me.”

Poon earned her qualification during the Olympic trials in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. She won the 50 m free style swim by beating the Canadian record of 5/100 of a second. “It’s been three years since I achieved my best timing, so I’m very happy that I qualified for Peking.”

The 6’1 feet swimmer who has been swimming for a long time with LaSalle’s Club Calac studies Management in McGill University. In 2006, she participated in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne (Australia) where she contributed towards winning the bronze medal in the 4 X 100 metre free style swim. Her presence was also felt in the Pan-Pacific championships in 2006 in Victoria, British Columbia as a member of the women’s quartet for the 4 X 100 metre free style which won the Silver.