Canada's women's four won the first gold of the competition today at the 2012 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Trakai, Lithuania.
Canada won in 7:11.24, Australia took the silver position in 7:15.38, and Russia was third in 7:16.61. Despite a strong first half, New Zealand had to settle for fourth in 7:17.59, followed by Romania (7:29.91) and the U.S. (7:34.13).
The Canadian crew is Christine Roper (Ontario), Susanne Grainger (Ontario), Cheryl Copson (Ontario), and Antje Von Seydlitz-Kurzbach (BC).
"I'm very proud to work with such an amazing group of athletes," said women's development coach, Michelle Darvill. "They really came through today with a great performance when it counted!"
Just before this race, Laurentian University student Carling Zeeman (Ontario) won her semi-final in the women's single in 8:37.30 - Great Britain's Rachel Gamble-Flint challenged, but ended up in second, and Latvia followed to also qualify. Germany (8:42.41), Denmark and Norway qualified from the other semi and round out the field for tomorrow's A final.
Canada's lightweight women's double also advances, after Elizabeth Fenje (BC) and Erin Snelgrove (Ontario) pulled off a third-place in today's semi-final. Germany won the semi in 07:48.96, New Zealand was second 07:53.40 and Canada made a late charge, overtaking Great Britain and finishing in 7:54.88.
The U23 men's four finished third (06:34.42) in the B final, or ninth overall. Keegan Drummond (New Brunswick), Ryan Rosts (Ontario), Tim Schrijver (Ontario), and David Lariviere (Ontario) are the members of this crew. Croatia won this B final.
The Canadian light men's four - Marc Addison (BC), Evan Cheng (BC), Maxwell Lattimer (BC) and Graham Schenck (ON) - was fifth in its semi today in 6:56.71, and now rows in the B final tomorrow for places seven to 12.
The lightweight men's double (Dylan Harris and Mark Henry, both of Ontario), also moves to a B final after a fifth-place in the semi in a time of 07:22.02.
Also today, Katherine Enns (BC) was first in the C final of the lightweight women's single in 08:57.21. This places her 13th overall.
Water was reported to be a mixture of smooth and choppy and slow times reflected these conditions. Racing continues tomorrow.
All times are over 2000m.