Almonte, Ont. canoeist brings home 3 gold medals from junior world championships

A 17-year-old girl from Almonte is back home after capturing several gold medals at the junior championships in Portugal. CTV’s Dylan Dyson reports.

There’s something special in the water at the Carleton Place Canoe Club – or rather, on the water.

Almonte native Isabel Lowry, 17, has returned home from the International Canoe Federation Junior & U23 World Sprint Championships in Portugal, where she won three gold medals.

“It was really amazing. It was a great experience,” Lowry tells CTV News. “And it was my first big time international medal.”

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The young paddler, who only took up the sport in 2020, led Canada to victory in the C1, C2, and C4 events; also known as the solo, pairs, and four-person canoe races.

Lowry claimed her first gold in the short C2 event, confidently winning by a boat’s length.

“The start felt really solid, really powerful. We were halfway through, and I just saw that we just kept moving further and further away from the competition,” she said.

“A 200-metre is a very quick race. So, if you don’t have a perfect stroke every stroke, then it’s really hard, you don’t have a lot of time to gain it back.”

Lowry’s solo event was a short time later, where she was on the hunt for another medal from the start, leading the final and winning by a nose.

“It was like a very tight turnaround. Like, it’s not very common, but I was off the water for like five minutes, maybe not even. I literally finished my race, my coach told me like, okay, good job, do another one. I was like, okay.”

And even after winning two golds, Lowry’s appetite wasn’t satisfied.

“I was really excited about what had happened. But I was like, I just want another one, you know? So, I got another one.”

The 17-year-old recalls how during the C4 event, which was a four-person 500-metre race, she and her Canadian teammates fell behind early, but made a late push for victory.

“The Ukrainian boat, the Chinese boat, and the Hungarian boat, they were all ahead of us for a bit. And then at the end I just found another gear and I was like, ‘I want another gold medal,’ so I just kind of found another gear. The girls caught the vibe and picked it up and we won by, I think a second and a bit, which is really great.”

Lowry’s longtime teammate and part of the C4 team was 16-year-old Madeleine Beauregard of Ottawa, who can now also call herself a gold medalist.

“Isabel, who strokes our boat, she’s absolutely insane,” said Beauregard. “She brought us an incredible finish, and I was honestly in the back just trying to make us go straight, trying to stay in the boat.”

The canoe club’s success brings a lot of pride to head coach Patrick Lester, who says two other club members also had impressive showings at the world championships.

“The athletes that we have are mostly almost entirely juniors,” says Lester.

“They’re a really close-knit group of friends that, when you have that kind of environment, that atmosphere, it makes it easier for them to show up to practice and do the work and have fun doing work.”

Lowry and the Carleton Place Canoe Club are now preparing for the upcoming Canada Games in Newfoundland, with the Almonte paddler’s sights set on many more gold medals to come.

“I want to take it one regatta at a time and not freak myself out too much, so just one step at a time. But I think the Olympics is the end goal for sure.”