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Double gold for Vincent-Lapointe

Laurence Vincent-Lapointe of Trois-Rivieres, Que., won the gold medal in the C-1 (canoe singles) 200-metre and C-2 500 with Mallorie Nicholson of Oakville, Ont., on Sunday at the world canoe and kayak championships.

POZNAN, Poland — Laurence Vincent-Lapointe of Trois-Rivieres, Que., won the gold medal in the C-1 (canoe singles) 200-metre and C-2 500 with Mallorie Nicholson of Oakville, Ont., on Sunday at the world canoe and kayak championships.

Her performances highlighted a four-medal day for Canadian paddlers to conclude the championships. Adam Van Koeverden of Oakville took the bronze in the K-1 (kayak singles) 500 and Richard Dalton of Halifax was third in the C-1 200.

In the C-1 200, Vincent-Lapointe clocked 48.188 seconds for the victory with Li Tianian of China second in 48.992 and Maria Kazakova of Russia third in 51.724. In the C-2 500, Lapointe and Nicholson were dominant in taking the gold in 2:03.622.

In the men’s K-1 500, Anders Gustafsson of Sweden was the winner in 1:38.457, Peter Gelle of Slovakia second in 1:38.961 and Van Koeverden followed in 1:39.005.

In the C-1 200, the top-six were all within a second of each other. Ivan Shtyl of Russia took gold in 39.161, Thomas Simart of France was second in 39.729 and Dalton third in 39.953.

Other Canadian finalists were Thomas Hall of Pointe-Claire, Que., and Ben Russell of Dartmouth, N.S., sixth in the C-2 500 and Ryan Cochrane of Windsor, N.S., and Hughes Fournel of Lachine, Que., sixth in the K-2 200.

“It was our first international event together and we are very satisfied,” said Fournel. “We believed we could win a medal but we are encouraged by the fact the boats ahead of us were very fast and we were close. We’re both excited about building on this towards 2012.”

Canada ends the competition with four gold, a silver and two bronze. The other Canadian medallists were Christine Gauthier of Pointe-Claire, Que., and Christine Selinger of Regina in Para canoe events. Selinger added a silver as well.