Angus Mortimer is dipping his paddle into the water in Rio de Janeiro, but taking aim on a kayaker half a world away.
Mortimer, 21, took a Pan American Games gold in the K-1 1,000 metres and called the strokes in a silver medal K-4 race, churning up Lagao de Freitas. But his real quarry isn't in Brazil with Canada's overachieving under-23 paddling squad. It's Olympic gold and bronze medalist Adam van Koeverden.
The Oakville, Ont., star is in Europe, where Canada's 22-member A-team is honing its skills for the August world championships in Duisburg, Germany.
It's there that van Koeverden, still the world's top kayak soloist, will qualify Canada for the men's singles races at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Other teams in Rio, particularly the Mexicans, Cubans and Brazilians, are using the Pan Ams as a test for their world teams. Canada, with no world paddlers in Rio, is testing the depth of its program - and it's turned out to be very deep.
As of the start of July, van Koeverden was undefeated in six World Cup races. But even if he wins at the worlds, he can't put his name on the seat in the Olympic boat. A winner in Duisburg qualifies his country for a nameless, faceless quota spot. Mortimer, who has been riding in van Koeverden's wash for years, has his eyes on an Olympic berth as well. The Olympic seats will be determined next spring.
"Am I the next Adam? I like to think so. I have a lot of respect for Adam and I've trained with him since I was 16. I hope to live up to his international achievements some day," said Mortimer, who has put one of his loves, music, on hold to chase the Olympic dream. He has taken five years to get through two years of his music specialty studying part time at Carleton University.
He's from a paddling family. Mortimer's brother, Ian, won a paddling medal at the 2003 Pan Ams in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Their mother, Elizabeth Elton, is commodore of the Rideau Canoe Club. Mike Chambers, president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, who presented Mortimer with his gold before a crowd of several hundred yesterday, is past commodore of that club.
"My whole life, since the age of nine, every day I've been paddling," said Mortimer, who is quieter than the outspoken van Koeverden. He gave up his focus on performance in piano and organ to devote himself to sport.
"Now I have some big decisions to make. Do I try to make the Olympic team in a K-2 or K-4 kayak or try to beat Adam for the K-1?"
He'll have to commit either to challenging the world's top singles kayaker or trying out for a crew by the end of the summer, Anne Merklinger, director general of CanoeKayak Canada said. The training is different for each. Mortimer goes after another medal today in the 500-metre sprint.
There's no question Mortimer showed leadership ability as stroke of the K-4 here. Two hours after dominating the K-1 field for a win by more than three seconds, he was back with Chris Pellini of Mississauga, Mark de Jonge of Halifax and Jeremy Bordeleau of Dartmouth, N.S. In the first half of the 1,000-metre race, they were in fifth place, trailing the front-running Cubans by more than 3.6 seconds. But in the last 250 metres, the steady Canadians surged past Mexico, Cuba and Argentina and were just short of catching gold medal winner Brazil at the finish.
"We knew if we stuck to our plan, we'd pass them all later. The last thing the coach said as we left the dock was, 'Sit back and don't panic,' " Mortimer said.
"Actually, if you put a speedometer on our boat, we didn't pick up the pace so much as they were tiring and slowing down. There's two ways you can race: Go out fast and try to hold on like Adam, or save it to be strong at the end."
Canada picked up two bronze medals as well. In the men's C-1 1,000-metre canoe race, Benjamin Russell of Dartmouth was third, eight seconds behind world champion Jose Cristobal of Mexico.
In the women's K-4 500-metre sprint, Canada held third throughout the race behind the winning Cubans.