The World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Racice, Czech Republic, continued today despite a storm on Thursday afternoon that saw many boats destroyed and other damage at rowing course.
Two races, including the women's eight rep that Canada is entered in, were re-scheduled for Saturday due to damage to a number of the boats stored on site that were to be in races today. Canadian boats were not damaged, and the Canadian team was at its hotel when the storm occurred.
In other reps today, Canada's lightweight men's four was second in 6:04.21 and advance (top two) to the semi final. The Hungarian boat won this rep in 6:03.59, just edging out the Canadians. All races are 2000m.
"The guys got off to a better start today (than in the heat) and maintained pretty good speed throughout the middle of the race," said their coach Pat Newman. "We will need to push harder through the bottom 750m to qualify in what will be a very competitive semi-final."
The U23 lightweight men's four is Rares Crisan (Mississauga Ont.), Travis King (Grimsby, Ont.), Ryan Meyers (Kingston Ont.), and Jeff Overington (Kingston Ont.)
The lightweight women's double of Kathryn Twyman of Edmonton, Alta., and Rebecca Gregory of Brampton, Ont. was also second (7:17.40) and advance with the top three from their rep. Sweden won the rep in 7:12.94. They will race in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Also advancing is Michael Braithwaite of Duncan, B.C. - the Canadian entry in the U23 men's single - who came back from a mediocre start to finish his rep in a time of 7:04.08. The top two advanced to the semi-final from this race, with the Latvian sculler, Dairis Adamaitis, winning this rep in 7:02.30.
The women's pair of Sarah Black of Ottawa, Ont. and Erika Shaw of Victoria, B.C. had a good start to their rep, but dropped to fourth and move to the B final, which determines places seven to 12. Their time today was 7:40.68.
Yesterday, both the men's eight and four from Canada won their heats and therefore skipped the repechage round of racing.