The Adventure Sports Center International will host The Canoe & Kayak World Series 2008 American Open on Friday and Saturday, October 3-4. This is the culminating event of the international competitive paddling season which also included the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The American Open is a two-day event featuring the US Olympic Whitewater team competing alongside elite paddlers from around the world, including athletes fresh from the Beijing Games.
"Hosting the American Open is a great source of pride for ASCI," said Matt Taylor, ASCI's executive director and a two-time US whitewater Olympian. "Not only are we welcoming the world's most-talented whitewater athletes for what's sure to be an exciting two days of racing, but we're also celebrating the tremendous performance many of these competitors had during the Beijing games. We are especially honored to host Michael Martikan, the reigning Olympic Gold Medalist from Slovakia who is known around the world as the greatest canoeist of this generation."
The 2008 American Open will feature Olympic paddlers navigating a series of slalom gates suspended above ASCI's state of the art whitewater course, which opened in May 2007. Qualifying runs begin at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 3 with semifinals kicking-off at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4. Final runs are scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m.
The second day of the event will also feature a charity race during which members of the US Olympic Whitewater Canoe/Kayak team will paddle alongside athletes from Team River Runner, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that provides adaptive paddling rehabilitation programs for wounded veterans recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Proceeds from the event will go to support Team River Runner's work with veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Team River Runner offers our country's wounded heroes a fun, unconventional way to cope with the affects of their injuries," continued Taylor. "We want to provide them with a home-base for their regional and national programs and we couldn't be more thrilled to launch that relationship at a time when their athletes can interact with some of the world's most talented paddlers."
Admission to the event is free and parking is $10 per vehicle. For more information call ASCI at 1.877.300.2724 or visit www.adventuresportscenter.com
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