Heyl bows out in single kayak semifinals

By MARIBEL VILLALVA

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece - Brett Heyl of Norwich, Vt., was unable to match his fifth-place qualifying position in the men's single kayak and failed to make it out of Friday's semifinal round at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Heyl, 22, had the 15th best semifinal time of 100.28.

The top 10 qualified for the finals. Heyl's teammate, Scott Parsons of Bethesda, Md., did advance and finished the day in sixth place with a combined time of 194.76 seconds.

``I paddled hard, but I just never found my groove,'' said a solemn Heyl. ``I know people didn't expect a whole lot from me, and I guess I proved them right.''

France's Benoit Peschier won the gold, Great Britain's Campbell Walsh took silver and France's Fabien Lefevre won bronze.

Heyl, who trains in Charlotte, N.C., said his time to shine will be at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

``Now I'm thinking about Beijing more than ever,'' he said.

Rebecca Giddens, who won a silver medal for the United States on Wednesday in the women's single kayak, expects bigger things from Heyl in the years to come.

``Brett is so young and he has so much talent. From here, he can only go up and up and up. I do expect he'll medal in Beijing,'' she said.

But the training won't start right away. Heyl said he will take several weeks off before returning to school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., to study economics.