The lightweight men's double of Matt Jensen of Innerkip, Ont. and Liam Parsons of Thunder Bay, Ont. picked up a bronze medal today at the BearingPoint Rowing World Cup regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland.
"We were a lot more aggressive today," said Parsons of the doubles final race. "Mike (Spracklen, men's coach) told us to forget about all the little things and just attack, so that's what we did."
The double's time was 6:18.85, just behind Denmark (6:17.36), with Hungary picking up gold in 6:16.98. Canada's second lightweight men's double entry of Doug Vandor of Dewittville, Que. and Jeff Bujas of Grimsby, Ont. finished in 11th place.
"Overall we had some very solid results this weekend," said Rowing Canada's High Performance Director Alan Roaf. "We are well-placed to move forward, and are in a much better position, as far as depth and performance, than in 2001 (the last post-Olympic year)."
In other Canadian races, the heavyweight men's four was fourth. After holding third for most of the 2000-metre course, the crew - Cam Baerg of Saskatoon, Sask., Kyle Hamilton of Richmond, B.C., Ben Rutledge of Cranbrook, B.C. and Kevin Light of Sidney, B.C. - was edged out by Denmark.
The favourites from Great Britain won the race in 5:53.87, followed by the Netherlands in 5:54.68, then Denmark in 5:57.47, and Canada in 5:57.49.
The men's pair of Olympians Barney Williams of Salt Spring Island, B.C. and Scott Frandsen of Kelowna, B.C. finished fifth in today's final in 6:39.37. New Zealand won this event in 6:28.74.
Anna-Marie de Zwager of Victoria, B.C., in her first regatta in the women's single, was also fifth. Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus easily won this race in 7:23.10, with France and Sweden picking up the other medals.
Tracy Cameron of Shubenacadie, N.S. and Elizabeth Urbach of Carp, Ont. were sixth in 7:07.52 in their lightweight women's double race today, and their teammates, Melanie Kok of St. Catharines, Ont. and Sheryl Preston of North Delta, B.C., finished eighth overall. The double is the only event in the Olympics for lightweight women.
The heavyweight women's double of Jane Rumball of Fredericton, N.B. and Rachelle de Jong of Regina, Sask. finished seventh, and Roslyn McLeod of Burlington, Ont. and Romina Stefancic of Victoria, B.C. finished ninth in the same event.
The athletes and coaches will now return to Canada to train and decide the final crews for the World Rowing Championships in Gifu, Japan, held in late August.