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Up and comer

Peachtree City resident best at Junior pre-World Championships

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

The Junior World Championships of Canoe and Kayak won’t be held until next year but Peachtree City’s Benn Fraker has shown himself to be the young man to beat next summer by recently winning the single canoe (C1) event at the Junior Pre-World Championships in Solkan, Slovenia.

Fraker won the event with two fast runs. He produced the fastest raw time of the first round, despite getting called for a gate penalty that Coach Davey Hearn did not see. In the second round, Fraker saw two of his competitiors put up great times (194.64 and 194.57). In his race, Fraker had a perfect run to the middle of the course before picking up two gate penalties and then finsihing without error. Fraker thought that the two gate touches cost hime the race, as each brush cost him a two second penalty. He slapped the water with his paddle in frustration only to hear the announcer say, “Benn Fraker is the new Pre-World Champion in C1.”

The members of the US team ran towards him in celebration with one member of the team flipping Fraker and his boat over.

Winning the race was an amazing experience for Fraker and other highlights of the winning the championship for him were calling home after the rac and knowing that people would be proud of him and standing on the podium and finally understanding that this experience was real. Fraker also enjoyed being able to talk to Ander Elosegui from Spain, who finished second, because he has taken Spanish at J.C. Booth Middle School and McIntosh High School.

His parents, Tom and Marcia Fraker, are extremely proud of their son’s accomplishments and are now getting used to the idea that “the best in the world may not be just somebody you see on television, it might be somebody to who you’ve read “Green Eggs and Ham” 386 times.”

Fraker will now join the senior team for three more weeks of racing in Europe and will send home his medal and a leaded glass trophy with a friend. He will return stateside a week before school starts up and is already looking forward to returning to Solkan next summer to defend his title in the Junior World Championships.