Canada's four crews in the finals today at the Rowing World Cup all bring home'some hardware from Banyoles,'spain.
2008 Olympians Doug Vandor of Dewittville, Que. and Cam'sylvester of Caledon, Ont., raced to a'silver medal in 7:01.57 in the lightweight men's double event. The Italian double of Elia Luini and Marcello Miani was first in 06:59.29; a French crew was third in 07:02.23.
The Canadian lightweight women's double of Lindsay Jennerich of Victoria, B.C. and'sheryl Preston of North Delta, B.C., finished third in today's final in 7:32.92. The Germans (07:27.17) and'spanish (07:29.30) crews finished in the top two.
"I am pleased with the results from today's finalists,"'said lead coach Mike'spracklen. "It'showed good effect from a hard winter's training and has given us a basis to move on, but the World Cup performances also'showed that we have a lot of work to do."
Derek O'Farrell of Unionville, Ont. and James Dunaway of Duncan, B.C., fought hard for a bronze medal in the men's pair event, finishing in a time of 6:38.02. Top pairs from Great Britain (6:31.70) and'south Africa (06:33.85) took gold and'silver.
The men's quad of Andrew Byrnes of Toronto, Ont., Gabe Bergen of 100 Mile House, B.C.,'steve Van Knotsenburg of Beamsville, Ont. and Doug Csima of Oakville, Ont., picked up a bronze in 6:33.89. Poland - Olympic champions who have rowed together as a crew for four years - and Great Britain took charge of this race, picking up gold and'silver respectively.
"The water was very choppy at the'starting gates with a driving head wind, but we moved off the blocks fairly well given the chop and had a few'seats lead on the field," explained Van Knotsenburg "Poland drew level with us at the 500-metre mark and we failed to get into a long,'solid rhythm through the middle of the race, which hurt us in the'second half as Great Britain and Poland moved away. We put in a good effort but could have rowed much cleaner, efficiently and'stronger through the middle of the race."
The lightweight men's four of Mike Lewis of Victoria, John'sasi of North Delta, B.C., Terry McKall of Edmonton, Alta., and Tim Myers of Penticton, B.C., finished fourth (06:20.70) in the B final or 10th overall.
"We will now go home to Canada and put in'some more hard work to raise our game to a higher'standard,"'said Peter Cookson, High Performance Director for Rowing Canada Aviron. "Our aim is to win, and that the work back in Canada will produce even better results this'season."
Yesterday, Fraser Berkhout of St. Catharines, Ont., finished fourth in the C final of the men's'single event in a time of 7:15.36, placing him 16th overall.'simon Gowdy of Montreal, Que., and Josh Metcalfe of Walkerton, Ont., ended up eighth overall, with a time of 7:02.44, after their lightweight men's pair B final.
Great Britain had an excellent World Cup - winning nine of the 14 gold medals available. Full results and reports at www.worldrowing.com