Canada finished sixth overall in 3:45.66 (over 1000 metres) in the mixed four event of the Paralympic rowing regatta today. Italy (03:33.13), the U.S. (03:37.61) and Great Britain (03:38.37) picked up medals in this event.

The Canadian crew includes Meghan Montgomery of Winnipeg, MB, Victoria Nolan of Toronto, ON, Scott Rand of Calgary, AB, Tony Theriault of Victoria, BC, and coxswain Laura Comeau of St. Catharines, ON.

"We learned a lot. It's been an amazing year," said Montgomery. "We came here to make the A final and we did it.” This same crew took bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Munich.

"We made a commitment at Worlds that we were going to stick together and make it to the final in Beijing,” added Theriault. "And here we are."

Steve Daniel of Val Therese, ON, finished fifth in 5:56.48 in the B final (11th overall) of the arms-only event.

Daniel has only been rowing competitively since last year. "It definitely was an all-out performance for me," said Daniel. "The caliber of competition is extremely high. There is no question I was the rookie out here. There’s a lot I want to achieve in this sport. I didn't come this far to stop now."

The mixed double sculls crew of Caitlin Renneson of Ottawa, ON, and Wilfredo More Wilson of Toronto, ON, also finished fifth in the B final. They completed the 1000m race in 4:54.08.

"That was definitely our best race together as a team," said Renneson. "We had a really good start and got into a really nice rhythm."

This was the first-ever rowing event in the Paralympics. "We are happy to have reached an A final (in the four event)," said Allison Sheard, adaptive team coordinator. "The field is obviously getting a lot stronger compared with recent World Championships. We have to take what we've learned from this regatta and work on our development over the next four years."

Conditions were great for racing today at Shunyi (also the site of the recent Olympic Games). In the finals, Great Britain dominated both singles events with Helene Raynsford and Tom Aggar winning today. China took gold in the double and, as Canada witnessed, Italy was golden in the four.