The New England Whitewater Triple-Crown Championships

The New England Whitewater Triple-Crown Championships will bring world-class canoe and kayak competition back to Connecticut in 2009. Independent competitions will be held in three distinctly different whitewater events: wildwater, slalom, and freestyle. Competitors will be welcome to compete only in their specialty, and awards will be given in each event--BUT, the prize money will go to paddlers who can excel in all three. The combined men's point winner, and the combined women's point winner, will each walk away with a 1000 dollar check.

The weekend will kick off Saturday morning with the wildwater sprint event, a simple, all-out race through the gorge, starting from the factory just upstream of the gorge and finishing either just above or just below the broken dam (water level dependent). The top competitors will use long, tippy, fast boats that are a challenge to paddle even on flatwater. The competitors will be started in matched pairs or threes, racing both against each other and against the clock. They will take two runs; the times from both runs will be added together to rank the competitors.

In the late morning, the action will move to the slalom course, where the competitors will be timed while navigating through and around poles hung over the waves, eddies, currents, and rocks of three-hundred yards of challenging rapids in the center of the gorge. The slalom event, an Olympic sport, is sure to draw current and former US team members. Here again each competitor will take two runs.

In mid to late afternoon the freestyle event will begin, conveniently located just upstream of the sandy beach in the middle of the gorge. Paddlers in their short blunt boats will be judged while performing acrobatic tricks and maneuvers on a designated wave or hydraulic. Freestyle paddlers represent the freewheeling "extreme" side of whitewater sport, and are famous for putting on a great show.  
On Saturday evening there will be a social gathering for all at one of the local establishments. On Sunday the top finishers in each of the three competitions, as well as the top overall finishers, will compete in a final round in each event. The finals are currently scheduled to take place between the hours of 11:00 and 3:00. (Times may be adjusted.) Awards will follow immediately.

The Tariffville gorge on the Farmington River provides an invaluable combination of convenient access and first-class whitewater. It was first used as a slalom-racing site in the 1960's, and has since played host to US Team Trials and an Olympic Trials qualifier race. The unusual Triple-Crown format is expected to draw elite paddlers not only from the Northeast, but from most of the Eastern US and Canada. The variety of competitions, and the easy access, are sure to draw eager competitors and thrilled spectators. 

Fine Print:
All three competitions, and the overall Triple-Crown event, will be fully sanctioned and insured by USA Canoe Kayak, recognized as the National Governing body of canoe and kayak sport by the US Olympic Committee and the International Canoe Federation. Proceeds from the Triple-Crown will go the US Canoe Kayak Foundation, a nonprofit foundation whose mission is to promote the development of canoe kayak sport, and will be earmarked specifically for the Northeast. 

Fine Print for Competitors:
Camping will be available in town for competitors and their fans. In each of Saturday's events, the usual competitive classes will be offered--K-1, C-1, and C-2, for both men and women--and awards will be given in each class. However, there will be a separate ranking in each event that separates competitors by only one criterion: men, and women. All male slalom paddlers will be ranked in one pool, for example, and in the overall ranking will receive the number of their placing (1st place gets one point, 2nd place two, etc.) C-2 partners will each receive the same number. Those paddlers competing in all three events will have their rankings from each event added together to produce an overall ranking, which will be used to select the top ten, who will go on to compete in the finals on Sunday. These twenty from the overall rankings (ten men, ten women) may be joined in the final by the top five in the individual events, time permitting.

Placings in Sunday's final will be based on the final results only; Saturday's results will be ignored (except for certain tie-breaking purposes). The winning man, and winning woman, will receive a $1000. check; other Triple-Crown finalists will receive either merchandise or much smaller cash prizes.