Queen, Hurd/Larimer round out U.S. Olympic Canoe and Kayak Team

Caroline Queen claimed the U.S. Olympic spot in women's kayak late Saturday, while Eric Hurd and Jeff Larimer made the final of an exciting men's double canoe competition this morning to become Olympians in that class, at the World Cup event at Cardiff, Wales.

Queen entered the competition tied in U.S. Olympic selection points with friend and fellow Maryland native Ashley Nee.  A racer must finish in the top 20 to earn more selection points and neither Queen nor Nee did that, Queen finishing 35th in the preliminary round and Nee 37th.  But the tiebreaker went to Queen by virtue of her earning the U.S. Olympic spot for K1W at the world championships last fall at Bratislava, Slovakia.  The third U.S. female kayaker, Emily Jackson, finished  43rd.

Men's double canoe, meanwhile, was full of drama for fans of slalom in the U.S.  Scott McCleskey and David Hepp, one of this country's top C2s in the late 90s and early 00s, had called it quits after narrowly missing the Olympic Team for the second time in 2004.  But they got back together last fall for one more shot at the Games this year, and made a serious run at the berth this weekend as they led Hurd/Larimer and Casey Eichfeld/Devin McEwan into the semifinal round.  But Hurd/Larimer, already leading by two points in the selection process, assured themselves of the Olympic berth with a 10th-place semifinal finish to advance to the final, leaving behind Eichfeld/McEwan in 13th place and McCleskey/Hepp in 18th.  The newest U.S. Olympians improved to ninth place in the final.

The complete results of the Cardiff World Cup event are available here.

And so, the U.S. Olympic Canoe and Kayak Team is complete.

The whitewater slalom competition for the London Olympics will take place from July 29 to August 2 at the Lee Valley White Water Centre in Hertfordshire.  The U.S. slalom team roster is as follows:

Casey Eichfeld (Drums, PA), men's single canoe
Eric Hurd (Marietta, GA), men's double canoe
Jeff Larimer (Kennesaw, GA), men's double canoe
Scott Parsons (Bethesda, MD), men's kayak
Caroline Queen (Darnestown, MD), women's kayak


The Olympic flatwater sprint regatta will be August 6-11 at Eton Dorney, Buckinghamshire.  The U.S. flatwater team roster is as follows:

Tim Hornsby (Atlanta, GA), men's kayak 200 meters
Carrie Johnson (San Diego, CA), women's kayak 500 meters