WELLAND

The gold medal was a perfect accessory to what Canadian kayaker Mark de Jonge treated as a dress rehearsal for the big race that awaits in 2016.

The world champion and Olympic bronze medallist from Nova Scotia added Pan Am gold to his growing collection on a rainy Tuesday morning here. And he did it with what is becoming his usual forceful effort in the men’s K-1 200 metres.

In the process, de Jonge may be powering his way to becoming one of the more prominent faces of Canada’s accomplished canoe-kayak team and a huge medal contender for next summer’s Rio Olympics.

“I was really happy to see that there was pressure here, see it as a good thing and being able to perform under pressure pressure was amazing,” De Jonge said at a wet Welland Flatwater Centre where the canoe-kayak sprint competition wrapped up.

“I had a really strong plan for these games and everything went to plan. I will take all of that forward to next year, which is great.”

With the world championships still five weeks away, de Jonge viewed the Pan Am competition as a perfect checkpoint on his road to Rio. He knew he’d get some heat from some his South American opponents, he knew there’s be some pressure to perform in front of the home crowd and he knew it would give him another indication of his progress.

Mission accomplished on three levels, with an added bonus of a bronze medal later in the morning when he teamed with partner Pierre-Luc Poulin in a dead heat for third in the K-2 200 metres.

De Jonge’s rise to the top of his sport is a true tale of an athlete taking advantage of opportunity. Prior to the London 2012 Olympics, he was coming back from a broken finger and the beginnings of a career as an engineer.

But when his sport’s governing body opted to replace the 500-metre events with 200 metres, it was de Jonge’s athletic calling. The explosiveness that was his strong suit was made for the new event and despite not training for a full Olympic quadrennial, he was able to reach the podium in London.

While he trained hard for the 2012 Games, he did so fitting it around first his studying and later his work schedule. And he was still able to win bronze.

“All that stuff, the broken finger, coming back from the job in engineering added to the drama of (being in London),” De Jonge said. “I made the epic climb to the top of the world in a couple of years.

“Now the story is really different. I’m a full-time athlete now and I’ve been training consistently for several years towards this one goal. I’ve continued that climb and continue to refine and work on the details I just didn’t have time to do back then. It’s become a lot more refined now and I see myself on top of that podium.”

De Jonge knows there will be expectations on him next year in Brazil and he’s ready to embrace it. It’s the reason he left a career and the benefits of Dalhousie University engineering degree behind him to train full time for Rio.

Though the world championships next month will be more important – a good result is needed to qualify his boat for Rio – de Jonge integrated the Pan Ams into his training strategy.

With Tuesday’s result, it will only add to the confidence that if he continues on his current path, a different colour of medal could be awaiting him next summer.

“I do want to win, but the real joy is having the perfect race,” de Jonge said. “To me, chasing that sense of perfection and to have all those little fine details come together on one day, win or lose, I think it’s going to make me pretty happy.

“Last year, I became a world champion and all those little steps that I’ve taken, feel like the pieces are in place for me to have success.”

rob.longley@sunmedia.ca

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