Canada picked up three more rowing bronze medals today at the Pan Am course in Guzman, Mexico.
In what was the first race and first medal of the day for Canada, Isolda Penney of Kingston, Ont. was third in her women's single final. Despite a lead at the 1500 mark, Penney was overtaken by the U.S. (7:53.05) and Argentina (7:55.55).
"Today's final was not ideal .... The competition here was good and I am very happy to be part of the Pan Am Games experience," Penney said after today's race. Canada's time was 8:06.88.
Men's pair Steven Van Knotsenburg of Beamsville, ON, and Peter McClelland of Aurora/King City, ON, also finished third overall.
"We had a decent start and stayed in the pack," said McClelland. "I felt we did good work through the middle of the course. Steve told me to go and I went for it! I'm proud of the result today."
The U.S. won in 6:47.07, Brazil was second in 6:48.74 and Canada's time was 6:50.80.
"It really started to come together for us as a pair two weeks ago," said Van Knotsenburg, who took a bronze medal in the coxed pair event at this year's World Championships. "And today, even though the conditions were tough, I felt we handled them well. It really helped to have a lot of experience in different boats and rowing conditions. ... The crowd and atmosphere here at Guzman is great. I'm looking forward to racing tomorrow (in the men's eight)."
The Canadian lightweight men's double scull boat of Terry McKall of Edmonton, AB, and Travis King of St. Catharines, ON, was also third in 6:29.27. Mexico put on a show for the home crowd to win gold in 6:24.52, and Cuba edged out Canada to get silver (6:27.07).
"We were moving well in the last 400, and then we hit some bad water and lost an oar, but we recovered and got back in it," said King. "It's great to be able to go home with some hardware and it's motivation to go back and train hard throughout the winter."
This brings the medal count to six for rowing so far, with one more day of finals.