Racing kicked off today for Canada's Under 23 Team. The Canadian crews are among the more than 880 athletes participating in World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Brest, Belarus, (July 22 to 25, 2010).
The men's pair of Conlin McCabe of Brockville, Ont. and Anthony Jacob of Vancouver, B.C. won their heat today in 6:46.21, followed by Romania (6:50.71) and the Ukrainians (6:53.43), who also qualify for the semi from this heat.
Though still in the Under-23 age category, McCabe and Jacob were recently part of the senior men's eight that competed at the Lucerne World Cup.
"The exciting thing about racing at the U23 level is that our competition is for the most part unknown," McCabe, 19, said today. "We wanted to have a solid start to the regatta, but we kept in mind that we have two more races (semi and final) and the last one is the only one that really matters! Anthony and I are going to analyze the splits closely and compare them to the calls made, and look to pick up speed through our next two races. If we build speed through the regatta, and keep learning about ourselves and our competition, I think we will get a great result in the end."
The lightweight women's double of Elizabeth Fenje and Patricia Obee, both of Victoria, B.C. also won today's heat. Their time was 7:23.54 and they move nicely to the semi-final.
The men's coxed four had a solid race this morning, placing second in today's heat and advancing directly to the A final. Germany won the heat in 6:15.88, and Canada crossed the line in 6:18.64 (top two to A final).
This crew is Ronan Sabo-Walsh (cox) of Vancouver, B.C., Josh Morris of Victoria, B.C., James Clinton of Vancouver, BC, Blake Parsons of Toronto, ON, and Michael Lewis of Dorchester, ON.
The lightweight men's quad of Kevin Mitchell of Victoria, Renaud Garon-Gendron of Boucherville, QC, Thomas Watson of Victoria, B.C., Kristjan Joubert of St-Lambert, QC, also advanced.
Great Britain won the heat in 6:04.75, Canada's time was 6:07.54 and the Netherlands was in third in 6:09.76 - top three move to the semi-finals.
Catherine Bouchard-Pilote of Boucherville, QC, was fifth in her lightweight women's single heat in 8:09.43 and will race in the repechage on Friday.
The lightweight men's pair of Eric Woelfl of St. Catharines, ON, and Stuart Taylor of Brockville ON, were fourth in their heat (in 7:11.65) and will also race in a rep Friday morning.
"It was a good first day for the Under 23 team. The athletes were excited to test their speed," said Chuck McDiarmid, Rowing Canada Aviron, High Performance Development Coordinator. "For many, this was their first international competition, and getting the heats out of the way will help them relax and prepare for their next rounds. Our coaches are confident in what they have seen so far and believe there is more speed to gain from the crews over the next few days."
Coaches were reporting good conditions, with a medium cross-tail wind, for most of the races, however, this afternoon saw a suspension of racing due to storms. All Canadian crews scheduled for today were able to finish before the weather issues arose.