The National Rowing Championships concluded today in Victoria, with exciting races on Elk Lake and winners crowned in senior, under 23 and junior categories in seven events.
Although there were cloudy skies, conditions on the water were good and Canada?s young rowers had a chance to shine: "It was rewarding to see some expected good results from our more senior athletes mixed with excellent performances from some of our up-and-coming talent," said Rowing Canada Aviron High Performance Director, Peter Cookson.
The women's single event was clearly taken over by Carling Zeeman this weekend. She won overall gold and is the under 23 champion in this event. Representing Ontario, Zeeman is also the World Under 23 bronze medalist for this year. Her time today was 7:24.29 (1850m).
National training centre athletes - Kerry Shaffer and Emily Cameron - took silver (7:28.34) and bronze (7:35.75) respectively. in this event. The junior category winner in the women's single was Nicole Hare, an athlete to watch from Alberta.
In the men's single, Kai Langerfed, who trains at the National Centre in Victoria, won overall in 6:48.17; closely followed by Matt Buie of Ontario in 6:49.72 and Adam Rabalski, also of Ontario, in 6:55.25.
Quebec athlete Pascal Lussier took the under 23 honors in the single; and Daniel de Groot of Ontario is the new junior champ.
The women's pair 2012 NRC gold medalists are Carolyn Ganes and Sarah Black of the National Training Centre in London, Ontario, with a time today of 7:09.42. Fellow NTC athletes Jennifer Martins and Kate Goodfellow were second and BC's Lisa Roman and Kristin Bauder were third.
Both the under 23 and junior titles went to the young pair of Caileigh Filmer and Kelsey Farmer of BC, who finished in 7:41.08.
Teresa Berkholtz of British Columbia won the lightweight women?s single event in 7:49.98, followed by BC teammate Katherine Enns in 7:57.67, and National Training Centre under 23 lightweight sculler, Erin Snelgrove, in 8:02.06.
The lightweight men's single winner in both the senior and under 23 categories was Mark Henry of Ontario. Seniors Taylor Pluzak and Valentin Dunsing were second and third respectively. (There are no junior lightweight races at NRCs).
The lightweight men's pair also had a senior/under 23 sweep by Evan Cheng and Max Lattimer of BC in an impressive time of 6:30.83. John Sasi and Eric Woelfl of the National Centre were second in the senior event in 6:33.08, followed by BC-based Lee Hall and Alex Walker in 6:40.62.
Another event that saw the under 23 entry win both the senior and age category medals was the men's pair. Ontario's David Lariviere and Mark Dawidek were first in 6:31.54. Spencer Crowley and Will Dean of the National Training Centre were second in 6:34.62, followed by under 23s Tim Schrijver and Mark Alm of Ontario.
With all but one Olympian (Will Dean in the pair) taking a pass on the NRCs after the intensity of the Games, this year?s event was a chance for coaches to witness some promising talent on the water in the early lead up to the 2015 Pan Ams and Rio 2016.
The event was hosted by the Victoria City Rowing Club and the title sponsor was local RBC-Royal Bank Branches.