Canadian crews had a respectable finish today at the 2009 Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland (July 10 to 12) - picking up a total of three medals out of three crews entered in the finals.
"I am very happy that every member of the team that raced today came away with a medal," said coach Mike Spracklen.
The men's eight - with a new lineup for 2009 - was second in 5:36.09 (2000 metres). Germany took gold in 5:33.56 and the Netherlands fought hard for a bronze in 5:37.99. Great Britain, Poland and Italy followed.
"Although we had every intention of winning gold today, I feel that the race was a good starting point for us," said coxswain Mark Laidlaw, who won a gold medal in the coxed pair last year at the World Championships and also had past success at the Under-23 level.
"We were the only boat challenging for first and we were the fastest boat in the middle of the race," Laidlaw explained. "The problem was that we got down early and that proved to be the difference-maker. We know how we can be faster, so we will spend the next month and a half working to be first in Poznan (Poland, site of this year's World Championships). This little bit of disappointment will go a long way to motivate us to be better."
The eight for this regatta is Laidlaw (Mississauga, ON), Derek O'Farrell (Unionville, ON), Steve VanKnotsenburg (Beamsville, ON), James Dunaway (Duncan, BC), Malcolm Howard (Victoria, BC), Andrew Byrnes (Toronto, ON), Doug Csima (Oakville, ON), Gabe Bergen (100 Mile House, BC) and Rob Gibson (Kingston, ON).
Doug Vandor of Dewittville, Que. and Cam Sylvester of Caledon, Ont. won their second silver medal of the season in the lightweight men's double event. New Zealand took first in 6:22.71; Canada's time was 6:25.54 and France picked up the bronze in 6:26.62.
Lindsay Jennerich of Victoria, B.C. and Sheryl Preston of North Delta, B.C. will bring home another bronze medal from the World Cup circuit - they were also third earlier this year in Spain. Great Britain won the lightweight women's double in 7:07.59; Belgium was second in 7:09.92 and Canada's time was 7:10.66.
"We are on track for the World Championships," said High Performance Director Peter Cookson. "Two silvers and a bronze medal is a good showing. We'll now go home and tweak things a little to be fully ready for the World Championships (to be held in late August)."
Yesterday, Canadian Fraser Berkhout posted a time of 7:01.73, coming first in the C final to finish 13th overall in the men's single event.
Comments | Log in to comment |
There are no Comments yet
|