More than 73 paddlers, coaches and officials from the Lanier Canoe and Kayak Center will travel to Oklahoma City for the U.S. Flatwater Canoe and Kayak National Club Championships.

Twelve of the athletes will arrive early to compete in the U.S. Junior Trials. Those athletes making time standards will secure a spot on the U.S. team headed to Russia in early September to compete at the Pre-World Junior Championships.

The LCKC sent 12 athletes of its own to Lake Placid, N.Y., earlier this summer to train for two weeks at the Olympic Training Center and compete in two regattas as members of the U.S. Junior National Team.
LCKC members made up 12 of the 25 athletes on the U.S team.

Competition begins Tuesday for the bantam, juvenile, junior and senior athletes and ends Saturday with the master’s competition events.

Oklahoma City has embraced the sport of canoe/kayak, hosting the U.S. Olympic Team Trials earlier this year and now the U.S. National Club Championships.

The Lanier Canoe and Kayak Club hopes to make a bid to host this event in the future, as it would bring the spotlight back to one of the best natural flatwater courses in the world: The 1996 Olympic venue and boathouse on Clark’s Bridge Road.

There are a number of programs available to paddlers of all ages at the venue located on Clark’s Bridge Road.

The Richardson Racing League is one such program that begins in early fall for six weeks and introduces elementary and middle school aged kids to canoeing and kayaking.