Six Orange Countians Make Canoe Team

Sheila Conover of Newport Beach, Cathy Marino of Huntington Beach and Mark Hamilton of Costa Mesa, all former Olympians, were among those selected to the 21-member U.S. team for flatwater canoe and kayak racing in the 1992 Olympics at Barcelona.

The team was selected during trials, which ended Sunday on Lake Wheeler in Raleigh.

Others from Orange County to make the team were David Spaulding of Newport Beach, Fred Spaulding of Costa Mesa, and Mitch Kahn of San Clemente.

Greg Barton, of Bellingham, Wash., a gold medalist in the men’s single kayak and double kayak 1,000-meter events at Seoul, easily won the single 1,000 in 3 minutes 42.73 seconds. He was more than three seconds ahead of Norman Bellingham of Bethesda, Md., who was Barton’s boatmate in the 1988 double kayak Olympic victory. Bellingham was second at 1,000 meters Sunday after winning at 500 meters Saturday.

Traci Phillips of Honolulu won both 500-meter finals in women’s kayak to establish herself as the top woman on the U.S. team.