The Canadian Under 23 men's eight picked up a silver medal today at the World Rowing Under 23 Championships (July 17 to 20) in Brandenburg, Germany.
The U.S. won the men's eight contest in 5:49.42; Canada overtook Poland to finish second in 5:53.30, leaving the Polish crew to claim bronze in 5:54.57. Germany, Great Britain and Estonia rounded out the field.
"It was a great race - we went out there to win, but the U.S. was just the better crew on the day," said Chris Aylard, a veteran of this event who is in his last year of Under 23 eligibility. "A lot of crews went out hard at the start and we were definitely challenged by Poland, which made it very exciting."
The silver medalists are Anthony Jacob of Vancouver, B.C, Conlin McCabe of Brockville, Ont., Will Dean of Kelowna, B.C., Blake Pucsek of Victoria B.C., Chris Aylard of Victoria, B.C., Will Crothers of Kingston, Ont., Stephen Connolly of Calgary, Alta., Rob Gibson of Kingston, Ont., and Ronan Sabo-Walsh (cox) of Vancouver, B.C.
"It's great to see Canada back on the podium in this event again," said Canadian coach Doug White. Last year, the U23 eight was a disappointing seventh in the world, after winning gold in 2006.
"It was a privilege to coach this crew - there was a mix of older guys with experience and one of the guys is still just 17 (Conlin McCabe, who was a Junior World silver medalist last year in the pair), which made for a great group and some excellent racing." Earlier this month, the crew won the Grand Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta in England.
The Canadian women's eight finished a respectable fourth today in 6:46.22.
The Canadian U23 women's eight is Ainsley Braun (cox) of Victoria, Ashton Brown of Calgary, Allison Doodeman of Thorold, Ont., Stephanie Morrison of Nelson B.C., Erika Shaw of Victoria, Jennifer Tuters of Peterborough, Ont., Natalie Mastracci of St. Catharines, Ont., Jody Schuurman of Vancouver, B.C. and Ame Hicks of 100 Mile House, B.C.
The U.S. won the gold in 6:36.01; Poland finished second in 6:39.72 and Belarus third in 6:43.35.
The men's pair - Josh Morris of Victoria, B.C. and Gordon Clark of Vancouver, B.C. - was sixth overall in 6:58.91. Ioannis Tsilis and Georgios Tziallas of Greece won this event for the second year in a row - today's winning time was 6:39.47.
More than 700 athletes participated in this year's Under 23 Worlds, with the host country, Germany, coming up big with five gold medals.
Full reports and results: www.worldrowing.com