Once again, Olympic gold-medal winner Greg Barton is coming back for the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race this Saturday on the Mississippi River.
     Once again, Pan American Games winner Michael Herbert is coming back.
     Barton, who set the three-mile course record of 16:44 in 1999, also won the event last year. Herbert came in second.
     And so, once again, everybody else figures to be aiming for third place.
     "I'd definitely consider Barton and Herbert the favorites," said Elmore Holmes, 33, of Memphis. "After them, there's a whole pack of us going for that last medal position."
     Wim Nouwen, 36, who's originally from Holland and was on the Dutch national team a decade ago, but now works as a physical therapist in Memphis, said: "I'm hoping for the fifth- or sixth-fastest time."
     Nouwen, Holmes, and race director Joe Royer train together about once a week. Nouwen likes Holmes's chances at getting that third medal position.
     "He's in good form this year," said Nouwen.
     Holmes's best time is 18:14, a full 90 seconds behind Barton's course record. But Holmes has been training hard and is hopeful of a good finish.
     "As far as getting ready for the race, there's the physical side and the mental side," Holmes said. "I do a lot of paddling, a lot of work on aerobic and anaerobic fitness.
     "Then as race time draws near, I taper off and just try to do some short, high-quality, paddling.
     "On the mental side, I try to visualize myself at the starting line, getting out well the first mile, and I visualize myself paddling really hard the last half-mile in the harbor."
     The 20th annual race begins about 10 a.m. from the mouth of the Wolf River. It ends in the Memphis Harbor.
     Last year, 217 boats competed in the race, which offers multiple divisions based on boat type and the age of the competitors.
     The winner of the kayak downriver solo division for men will receive $200.
     "I don't think anybody's in it for the money," said Nouwen. "It's pure hobby and passion. You like to have a paddle in your hand and go as fast as you can."
 
 

     Several days before Saturday's 20th Outdoors Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race, Memphis paddler Elmore Holmes had offered a qualified prediction:
     If the conditions were right--a calm Mississippi River and not much wind--then Pan American Games winner Michael Herbert of Rogers, Ark., might have a shot at beating four-time Olympic medalist Greg Barton, who had won the last two races and owns the course record.
     "Mike Herbert has world-class speed,'' Holmes said. "He's scary fast.''
     On Saturday, Herbert was scary fast from the beginning of the 3-mile race that starts at the mouth of the Wolf River and finishes in the Memphis Harbor. Herbert won the kayak downriver solo division for men in 16:48, just four seconds off Barton's course-record of 16:44, set in 1999. Barton, of Seattle, finished second this year, in 17:00.
     And, as expected, it was a two-man race. Holmes, 33, was a distant third, finishing in 18:48, and 19-year-old Canadian wildwater team member Peter Braul took fourth in 19:11.
     "The conditions were good--not much wind,'' said Barton, who has won two gold and two bronze Olympic medals. "He was just stronger today. He jumped out to a strong start and I wasn't able to catch him.''
     Unlike last year.
     "I was worried about him,'' said Herbert, 40, "because last year he passed me at about the bridge. I just got lucky this time.''
     Herbert said he had one close call during Saturday's race when the wake from a couple of speedboats rocked his kayak.
     "I almost went in the drink,'' he said with a laugh.
     Braul and the three other Canadians who traveled with him here from Ontario almost didn't get here at all. Maks Zupan, 63, a former member of Canada's long-distance kayak team, said they had major car trouble in Michigan. "Three mechanics working five hours,'' Zupan said.
     Once here, Zupan competed in the sea (touring) kayaks masters division (50 and older). But Zupan was even faster than younger racers in the division, overtaking Memphis's Wim Nouwen, 36, near the finish line. Zupan's time of 19:26 was sixth-fastest out of a record 229 finishing boats.
     "Maks came past me,'' said Nouwen, who's originally from Holland. "I couldn't hold him off. He's amazing.''
     So was the start of the race, which race director and competitor Joe Royer said was trouble-free.
     "We usually have a few people turn over in the start,'' said Royer. "This year it was pretty clean. A lot of that's because the wind was mild. We've had as many as 12 canoes over at one time.''
     While the fastest action was up front with the likes of Herbert and Barton, and while Zupan and his crew might have had the most trouble getting here, paddlers came from all over and for all reasons.
     David and Priscilla Moore came from Chattanooga and each competed in a solo kayak division. David had won a lower class last year, but this year wanted to try his luck in the sprint kayaks with Herbert and Barton.
     "I just wanted to give it a shot,'' David Moore, 38, said. "Burn it. Work it. This is a different type of exhaustion than running or biking.''
     Memphian Gordon Ginsberg and his 14-year-old son Sam manned a tandem canoe. Their goal?
     "We came down here with the plan of enjoying the river and paddling together,'' Gordon Ginsberg said.
     And for that, too, the conditions were just right.