Monday photo feature

This article appeared in The Commercial Appeal, the daily newspaper of Memphis, the day after the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race in 2012.

The race was back on for the first time since 2009.  A violent storm system swept in and scuttled the 2010 race at the last minute; in 2011, flooding on the Mississippi River forced the event's cancellation a couple of weeks ahead of time.  Shell-shocked by two hard-luck years in a row, race director Joe Royer considered retiring the event for good; but in the end he decided "the show must go on."  Having staged the race on the first Saturday in May for its entire history, he took this opportunity to pick a new date with a smaller likelihood of inclement weather: the day before Father's Day, which in 2012 fell on June 16.

One thing I've learned over years of watching reporters cover my sport is that even the good ones rarely get everything right.  While I think Mr. Brasher did a pretty good overall job with this story, I'm naturally pedantic and I tend to notice even the slightest inaccuracies.  I'm going to shine my blog's light on a gripe I have with this one.

When the results are posted during the post-race party each year, they are always posted by class: one sheet of paper for women's tandem kayak, another sheet of paper for men's solo canoe, and so on.  In making his list of "Top Finishers," Brasher apparently looked only at the sheet of paper for men's racing kayak (the class for surf skis, wildwater boats, flatwater K1s, and all other kayaks designed specifically for racing).

As a matter of fact, the top seven finishers in men's racing kayak were also the top seven finishers overall.  But then some racers in other classes came across the line.  With all due respect to Chris Brown, the following six people ran the course faster than he did, and therefore should have been mentioned in the paper as well:

Phil Capel (Sherwood, AR), men's fast touring kayak, 21:27
Dale Burris (Russellville, AR)/Don Walls (Dover, AR), USCA Pro C2, 21:33
Jim Budi (Beaufort, SC), men's fast touring kayak, 22:01
Laurens Willard (Charlotte, NC), men's fast touring kayak, 22:18
Wim Nouwen (Memphis, TN), men's fast touring kayak, 22:24

As you can see, there was in fact much more than just "a trio of Memphians" coming in on the heels of the top five.

As long as I'm in "wrong-righting" mode, I'll also recognize the top female finishers, who also deserved some newspaper ink:

Tonya Tittle (Memphis, TN), women's fast touring kayak, 24:19
Karen Kesselring (Hot Springs Village, AR), women's touring kayak 13'3" to 17'6", 25:19
Carol Lee Royer (Memphis, TN), women's racing kayak, 26:42
Traci Clever (Vicksburg, MS), women's touring kayak 13'3" to 17'6", 26:52
Kata Dismukes (Cordova, TN), women's touring kayak 13'3" to 17'6", 26:59
Trish Hipgrave (Bryson City, NC), women's touring kayak 13'3" to 17'6", 27:07