Carleton Place athletes strike gold competing for Team Canada at Canoe ’26 Junior World Championships
Two Carleton Place Canoe Club athletes are returning home as world champions after helping Canada capture three gold medals at the 2026 International Canoe Federation (ICF) Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships in Halifax, a milestone their coach says reflects years of dedication, teamwork and a proud local canoeing tradition.
Competing in multiple events for Team Canada at Canoe ’26 in Lake Banook between June 25 -July 5, 2026, Carleton Place Canoe Club’s Isabel Lowry, Abbigail Haines, and Roenn Hodgins stood atop the podium multiple times during the international championships.
According to a proud update provided by the Carleton Place Canoe Club, Lowry successfully defended her Junior Women’s C1 200-metre world title, earning Canada’s first gold medal of the event before claiming a second gold as part of the country’s victorious Junior Women’s C4 500-metre crew alongside Abbigail Haines, Victoria Tran and Madeleine Beauregard.
Haines and Tran also delivered another outstanding win for Canada, securing gold in the Junior Women’s C2 200 metres event. In the men’s competition, Roenn Hodgins also locked in strong results, finishing 7th in the Junior Men’s C4 500m and 8th in the Junior Men’s C2 500m.
In a conversation with Lanarkist, Carleton Place Canoe Club head coach and technical director Pat Lester said watching these athletes celebrate on the podium was the culmination of years of hard work and dedication.
“It was pretty incredible,” Lester shared. “Last year at Junior Worlds, Izzy won three gold medals in Portugal, but I had to watch from home. To be able to see it in person and be a little more part of it was just great because we see everything that happens behind the scenes. The many years of lead-up, the stress and the mental preparation that goes into such a big event. It was extremely rewarding.”
Lester said the chemistry that powered the Canadian C4 crew to gold had been developing well before the championships. Although Lowry and Haines train together in Carleton Place, they have raced against and alongside their fellow Team Canada athletes for years, forming friendships and trust in the process.
“They’re all really talented world-class athletes individually,” he told Lanarkist. “They’re very familiar with each other. They’ve competed together internationally for about four years now at events like the Olympic Hopes Regatta. They get along so well that it makes it seamless to put them together and find some chemistry and good collaboration.”
On a broader level, these latest world titles signify yet another chapter in a long history of excellence for the Carleton Place Canoe Club. Lester noted the club is the oldest continually operating canoe club in Canada, with a lineage that has produced multiple Olympic athletes and coaches.
“We’re really fortunate here,” he said. “We have great facilities and a great body of water. There’s been a longstanding history of success here.”
While elite performances naturally rise and fall over time, Lester said the club’s strong foundation remains its community programming.
“Our biggest thing is our summer camps” he shared, “We have upwards of 600 kids coming through every summer.”
Still, he acknowledged the local club is currently experiencing “a big upswing” in high-performance results, which trickles down to the rest of the Carleton Place community. “We do see a lot of our younger paddlers now opting for more time in canoes,” he explained. “We have a lot of young girls specifically who are really starting to to get more engaged and more involved and we’re really excited about it.”
While Lowry and Haines have wrapped up their international racing season, their year is far from over. Both athletes will compete at the Canadian National Championships in Ottawa later this summer, while club athletes Roenn Hodgins and Luka Ribeiro will represent Canada at the Olympic Hopes Regatta in Bratislava, Slovakia this fall.