Canada's top female rowers proved they are among the best in the World; and the lightweight men's double also stepped on the podium today in Lucerne at the Rowing World Cup.
The women's eight had an excellent race - leading most of the way, only to be beaten by .20 of a second at the finish line by the U.S. The Americans clocked in at 6:12.19 at the 2000-metre mark; with Canada at 6:12.39 and Great Britain in third at 6:17.35.
"It's always tough losing such a close race," said veteran coxswain Lesley Thompson-Willie, "but this was a good stepping stone for the Worlds (in November). The women did a great job today."
The women's eight is Thompson-Willie of London, ON, Cristin McCarty of Saskatoon, SK, Darcy Marquardt of Richmond, BC, Ashley Brzozowicz, Krista Guloien, Andreanne Morin of Montreal, QC, Janine Hanson of Winnipeg, MB, Sandra Kisil of Ancaster, ON and Emma Darling of Burnaby, BC.
Two of the members of the silver-medal eight - Brzozowicz and Guloien - grabbed Canada's first medal of the day - a bronze in the women's pair. New Zealand was first in 7:09.57, dominating most of the race, then an American boat took silver in 7:14.24, just edging out the Canadians, who crossed the line in 7:15.73.
It was a busy day for the pair, who later rowed in the eight. "The two races are tactically different. In the pair, I set the rhythm, but in the eight I just follow and pull really hard," Brzozowicz, said after the eight race. "It was great to medal twice in one day, but I'm sure it will hurt later!"
"We were glad to come here and get in some challenging racing - it was great to race New Zealand (in the pair), who are obviously very fast," said Guloien, "but we now have a sweet chunk of training time before the World Championships and we're looking forward to facing them again."
Brzozowicz continued: "We knew the Americans had speed and today they brought their A race. We were composed and pushed right to the finish."
The Canadian lightweight men's double also rowed to a bronze this morning on the Rotsee rowing course. Again New Zealand (Storm Uru and Peter Taylor) took first, with a time of 6:21.98, Germany was second with a late surge finishing in 6:24.51, and Canada just a touch away in 6:24.88 for third.
Doug Vandor of Dewittville, Que. and Cam Sylvester of Caledon, ON, didn't notice the late German push, but stayed composed at the finish.
"We were just trying to stay focused and internal," said Sylvester. "Obviously, it is more competitive here (than at the first World Cup in Bled where they won gold), but we expected that."
Single sculler Malcolm Howard had the toughest competition he has faced yet in this event (he was previously part of the men's eight that won Olympic gold in 2008). He finished a solid fourth - Czech sculler Ondrej Synek was first in 6:52.82, Alan Campbell of Great Britain was second in 6:55.21 and Mahe Drysdale was third in 6:58.18 - with Howard on just off medal pace at 7:00.82. Norway's Olaf Tufte - two time Olympic gold medalist in this event- was fifth and 7:03.33 and Sweden's Lassi Karonen was sixth in 7:04.13.
Howard was seventh at the first World Cup in Bled, and sixth at the second in Munich. "Malcolm continues to learn with every race and we both felt he made good progress here," said assistant men's coach, Allison Dobb.
"It was a good result and I'm happy with the improvement," said Howard of Victoria, BC, "but I'm not content with fourth. I still have a lot I have to work on. It will be nice to get back home and go back to the drawing board."
The men's eight was also fourth, despite a strong start and leading for more than half the race. They were passed by the Germans, then the British, and eventually Australia. Germany won gold in 5:30.32, Australia put on a late surge to finish second in 5:31.31 and Great Britain took third in 5:32.23.
The men's eight is Mark Laidlaw (cox) of Mississauga, ON, Derek O'Farrell of Unionville, ON, Andrew Byrnes of Toronto, ON, Doug Csima of Oakville, ON, Rob Gibson of Kingston, ON, Conlin McCabe of Brockville, ON, Anthony Jacob of Vancouver, BC, Gabe Bergen of 100 Mile House, BC, and Steve Van Knotsenburg of Beamsville, ON.
"Given the way we've been approaching things, I believe we can be the best eight in the world, but it didn't come together today. We have all of the pieces individually - in this race we had a very strong first half," said men's eight coxswain Mark Laidlaw. "Being up on Germany for half the race is progress to me. We have a lot of information to take home, but unfortunately we've given other crews reason to believe in themselves."
Out of this crew, McCabe and Anthony will now quickly prepare for the upcoming Under-23 World Championships in Belarus later this month.
In other Canadian results, Tracy Cameron of Shubenacadie, NS, and Katya Herman of Sudbury, ON, won their B final race in 7:09.49 and finish seventh.
Women's single Isolda Penney of Kingston, Ont. finished second in her B final, to achieve an overall placing of eighth. Penney's time was 7:46.64, with the U.S. Sculler Genevra Stone winning this race in 7:45.70.
The women's double of Romina Stefancic of Victoria and Peggy DeVos of Kamloops, BC, were fourth in the B final or 10th overall in 7:10.39.
The men's four was fifth in the B final in 6:00.26 (11th overall). The four is Will Crothers of Kingston, Ont., Fraser Berkhout of St. Catharines, Ont., David Calder of Victoria, and Mike Wilkinson of Vancouver, BC.
"Four medals at the Lucerne World Cup (three today and one yesterday) is a reasonable showing," said Peter Cookson, High Performance Director for Rowing Canada. "We now have a lot of information to take back to Canada and use to plan our selection and strategy for the World Championships. This was a very important regatta for us and I'm proud of our athletes' performances."