HIGH ACHIEVERS WEEKEND WRAP: Mia Zahab puts focus on kayaking, Ruby Muhl wins double gold as Canadian paddling championships open

By Martin Cleary

Mia Zahab has been on the go for most of her 18 years, whether it’s running through wooded trails, cross-country skiing, biathlon or kayaking.

It’s hard for her not to be active, as she has two stellar fitness-conscience role models at home – father Ray, who completed more than 40 unimaginable athletic adventures around the world, and mother Kathy Adams, who has challenged herself in a variety of road races.

“It definitely helped,” she said. “I wanted to be outside constantly. Now that I’m in sports, I push hard.”

But as Mia became older, balancing three sports with schoolwork became difficult. The trouble was she was good at all three.

As a cross-country skier, she competed at the Quebec and national levels and recorded some podium finishes. As a biathlete, she also was at the top of her class in a variety of races.

But Zahab stopped biathlon last year and put the brakes on cross-country skiing a few years ago.

That allowed her to focus exclusively on developing her skills as a sprint kayak racer with the Cascades Canoe Club on the Gatineau River in Chelsea.

Zahab, a second-year natural sciences student at CÉGEP Heritage College, entered kayaking as a recreational summer activity several years ago with a friend. It was one of the best decisions she has made as she enjoyed that community of athletes and coaches, the hard workouts and the positivity surrounding all aspects of the sport.

As her love of the sport developed, it has allowed her to become a competitive kayaker, training three times a day, six days a week. She’s fully motivated as she makes the 10-minute drive to her training sessions.

Her dedication led her to a breakout season at the Quebec level and she’s hoping to make an impression at this week’s Canoe Kayak Canada sprint championships at the Rideau Canoe Club.

Zahab opened her first national championships in two years with the first of her five races on Tuesday. She placed fourth in her U18 women’s K1 200-metre heat in 47.986 seconds, but didn’t qualify for the nine-boat final.

She previously competed in the 2024 Canadian championships in Welland, ON, and the 2023 nationals in Dartmouth, N.S., but Cascades did not send a team to Regina last year. At the Welland nationals, she raced in the women’s U16 class and won the silver medal in the C4 500-metre race and bronze in the C4 200 metres.

For the first time in her career at the Quebec sprint championships, Zahab registered podium finishes in all three of her U18 kayak solo races. She posted decisive victories in the women’s K1 500 and 1,000 metres with respective times of two minutes, 5.53 seconds and 4:24.10. She also was third in the 200-metre race in 46.66 seconds, which left her 1.04 seconds out of first place.

Zahab also will have K1 races over 500 and 1,000 metres this week as well as the open K2 500 metres and a K2 unified race over 200 metres.

“My goals are to qualify for finals. That would be awesome,” Zahab said in a phone interview on the eve of nationals. “In the K2 open race, she (Florence Gauthier) is a canoe racer and it will be her first time racing in a kayak. We hope to get across the finish line. Whatever happens, happens.”

Zahab also will be watching some of the women’s U16 races to cheer for her sister Anika, who won the C2 1,000-metre bronze medal with Katsya Ranson at the Quebec championships.

“It will be awesome to compete at nationals this year,” Mia added. “I’m lucky we are so close (to the venue) and I get to sleep at home.”

The Canadian championships will be missing some of its top kayakers and canoeists as they will be attending this week’s International Canoe Federation world senior championships in Poznan, Poland.

Among the notable local paddlers absent: Cascades’ Sophia Jensen, who is a potential medallist in the women’s C1 200-metre and C1 500-metre races, Rideau Canoe Club’s Zoe Wojtyk, women’s canoe; and Rideau women’s kayakers Toshka Besharah and Callie Loch; as well as para athletes Brianna Hennessy, Ottawa River Canoe Club, women’s VL2 and KL1; Kevin Tobin, Ottawa River, men’s K1; and Gabriel Ferron-Bouius, Rideau, men’s KL3.

More than 1,200 paddlers are set to compete at the championships, including over 120 from the host Rideau Canoe Club. Spectator admission is free.

Here are the Ottawa and area medal winners from Day 1 at the Canadian sprint canoe kayak championships:

· Ruby Muhl, Rideau, gold, junior women’s C1 200 metres, 48.468 seconds; gold, junior women’s C1 500 metres, 2:15.504.

· Isabel Lowry, Carleton Place, gold, U18 women’s C1 200 metres, 49.134 seconds; silver, U18 women’s C1 500 metres, 2:20.572.

· Riley Taylor, Rideau, gold, U18 men’s K1 200 metres, 38.254 seconds.

· Kate Osborne, Rideau, gold, junior women’s K1 500 metres, 2:04.766.

· Isaac Finkelstein, Rideau, gold, junior men’s C1 500 metres, 2:01.592.

· Luka Ribero, Carleton Place, gold, U16 men’s C1 1,000 metres, 4:44.098.

· Maren Bradley, Rideau, gold, senior women’s K1 500 metres, 2:06.363.

· Alexander Hoferek, Rideau, silver, senior men’s K1 200 metres, 37.103 seconds.

· Peter Bradley, Rideau, silver, junior men’s C1 500 metres, 2:03.587.

· Nathan Goodall, Ottawa River, silver, U16 men’s C1 1,000 metres, 4:47.098.

· Marielle Hawkes, Rideau, bronze, senior women’s K1 200 metres, 46.261 seconds.

· Roenn Hodgins, Carleton Place, bronze, U18 men’s C1 200 metres, 44.835 seconds; bronze, U18 men’s C1 500 metres, 2:10.221.

· Ryan Naroditsky, Rideau, bronze, junior men’s K1 500 metres, 1:47.629.

· Eli Thorp, Cascades, bronze, U16 men’s C1 1,000 metres, 4:48.978.

· George Farnsworth, Rideau, bronze, U18 men’s K1 500 metres, 1:51.376.

FIGURE SKATERS BRIANNA DION, JACOB COTE PLACE FIFTH IN CHINA

The pairs figure skating team of Brianna Dion of Ottawa and Jacob Cote of Dartmouth, N.S., opened the ISU Junior Grand Prix Series season on a positive note in Xi’an City, China.

Dion and Cote placed fifth overall, after setting personal-best scores of 46.67 points in the short program and 128.02 points overall. Their free skating score was 81.35 points.

“We were very pleased with our free program,” Dion said in a Skate Canada media release. “We kept it calm, relaxed and easy. We know we worked very hard leading up to it, so we know that we put out the best that we could.”

LOCAL SWIMMERS FARE WELL AT JUNIOR PAN PAC MEET

Breaststroke specialist Arthur Galiano of the Nepean Kanata Barracudas placed seventh in the 50-metre final and 10th over 100 metres at the Junior Pan Pac swimming championships in Vancouver.

He posted respective times of 28.86 seconds and 1:03.51.

Colt Chaires of the Greater Ottawa Kingfish had a trio of 10th-place results, covering 1,500 metres in 15:56.44, 800 metres in 8:16.25 and the 400-metre individual medley in 4:30.30. He also was 15th in the 200-metre backstroke in 2:03.96.

The Ottawa Youth Olympians’ Jordyn Richardson qualified for two B finals, where she won the 50-metre butterfly in 27.27 seconds and was 11th overall and 15th in the 100-metre butterfly in 1:02.24.

MVP HONOURS FOR BASKETBALL FORWARD SYLA SWORDS

Syla Swords was named the MVP of the FIBA women’s Olympic pre-qualifying basketball tournament in Mexico, after leading Canada to a perfect 5-0 record.

Swords, the daughter of Ottawa Olympian Shawn Swords, averaged 14.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.0 steals a game. A forward, she scored in double figures in every game, including the final, where she posted 12 points, three rebounds, three assists and one steal.

She also was named to the tournament all-star team.

In early July, Shawn was named head coach of the NBA G League’s Long Island Nets, which is the affiliate of the Brooklyn Nets. Swords joined the Long Island team in 2022 as an assistant coach and has been the associate coach for the past three seasons.

PROVINCIAL PRIZES FOR OTTAWA IRISH, BARRHAVEN SCOTTISH RUGBY

The host Ottawa Irish earned a silver medal behind London St. George’s in the U16 girls’ regional cup at Rugby Ontario’s 2026 Junior Provincial Cups and regional championships at Twin Elm Ruby Park in Richmond.

More than 600 athletes competed across the U16 boys’, U18 boys’ and U16 girls’ divisions.

The Barrhaven Scottish were the big winners at the earlier U18 girls’ Provincial Cup in Brantford, as they topped the Oshawa Vikings in the final.

END NOTES

· Ottawa’s Julianne Zussman and fellow Ashbury College grad Maggie Cogger-Orr have been appointed as referees for the inaugural women’s rugby WXV Global Series and Global Series Challenger.

· Ottawa’s Elliott Hartell of Canada Topflight Academy has committed to play men’s basketball at McGill University.

· Ella Lindsay of the Nepean Ottawa Diving Club and Lila Gokiert of Calgary placed ninth in the 10-metre synchro platform competition with 214.47 points at the on-going world junior diving championships in Rijeka, Croatia.

· Tyler Stone of Ottawa tied for 23rd place at the Canadian men’s mid-amateur golf championship in Brantford, after shooting rounds of 74-72-68-71-285. Ottawa’s Ryan Sevigny shared 28th place at 68-71-75-73-287. NHL official Garrett Rank of Waterloo won the championship for the fifth time at 64-68-69-69-270.

· Stan Labow achieved a golfing milestone recently at the Rideau View Golf Club, when he notched a hole in one. He marked his scorecard with his first-ever ace on the 185-yard 15th hole. Labow, who is 90, used a driver.

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