Would the same thing happen if he had swimming induced pulmonary edema?
Pulmonary edema essentially causes drowning if bad enough -- no matter what the cause. So, yes, it would likely be asystole also.

An article I read recently says they wonder how many people that "drown" actually have had pulmonary edema, and you cannot tell post-death what caused all the fluid in the lungs. Just that they drowned. Can anyone else confirm that? I'm not really a specialist in autopsy stuff! That's why we send stuff to the lab!

All in all, this is quite sad, but likely nothing to do with the race organization. Other than having oxygen mask and diuretics on the kayaks, it sounds like this was unpreventable on their part. Although I didn't get to read the newspaper articles (not that they are usually all that informative) -- I was too late, and the NEW news has replaced it.

Jes