BIG WHITEWATER FIELD EXPECTED

FREDERICKTOWN -- Missouri Whitewater Championships officials are expecting a record field for events in the annual championships, to be held March 19-20, in the cold waters of St. Francis River, hoping to win the right to compete in the Olympic Games.

The 1993 event will serve as qualification trials for the 1994 Olympic Festival, to be held later this summer.

The Whitewater championships consists of slalom and downriver races.

The downriver races consists of a five-mile timed race through rapids. Slalom races pit paddlers against each others in a competition to negotiate gates hung over the river, with races judged on speed and accuracy.

This marks the first time the Southern Regional Olympic Festival Trials have been held in Missouri. Mary Burrows is vice president of media for the Midwest Foundation for Whitewater Excellence and marketing chair for the Missouri Whitewater Association (MWA).

The two organizations co-sponsor the event. She said Olympic officials chose Millstream Gardens (owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation) because of its outstanding natural beauty and challenging whitewaters.