Photo: Planet Canoe

“A little-known American teenager stunned a world class canoe field on the penultimate day of the ICF canoe sprint world championships on Saturday [24 August 2019].”

“17-year-old Nevin Harrison was barely known even in her own country before winning C1 gold at the Pan American Games, but the American has thrown herself into medal contention for next year’s C1 200 Olympic debut with a stunning gold in Szeged.

“Canadian multiple world champion, Laurence Vincent-Lapointe, suspended because of a doping violation, was the only big name missing from the final, but it didn’t phase Harrison, who beat home Russian Olesia Romasenko and Belarus’s Alena Nazdrova.

“I was going into that final thinking, man I’m just happy to be here, and I never ever felt that a medal was possible, and especially gold,” Harrison said.

“Oh my gosh, its been my dream since I was a little kid to make the Olympics, it’s so good to be here.”

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