The Canadian Junior pair of Anthony Jacob of Vancouver, B.C. and Conlin McCabe of Brockville, Ont. won a World Championship silver medal today on the Olympic rowing course in Beijing, China.
China won this event in 6:46.34, and Canada overtook a Romanian pair to finish in second in 6:50.08 and Romania settled for bronze in 6:52.57.
"We felt really strong today," said Jacob. "Again, we went out to race the clock, but because we were five seconds behind second place, we had a lot of work to do to catch up. Climbing our way to second in the last 500, our target switched from the Romanians to the Chinese, but unfortunately we ran out of room."
Jacob and McCabe looked solid throughout this regatta, winning their heat and semi leading up to today's final.
"Standing on the podium beside the other two countries was an amazing experience," said McCabe. "We placed fourth (both were in the men's coxed four event) last year, so coming home with a silver medal is a dream come true for both of us."
The Junior women's single - Lauren Wilkinson of North Vancouver, B.C. - was sixth overall in 8:17.31. China (Weiwei Zhu) also dominated this race, winning in a time of 7:53.66, with Germany and Lithuania picking up the other medals.
Canada's junior women's pair - Bridget Moran of London, Ont. and Samantha Sartor of Mississauga, Ont. - raced in the B Final taking an early lead over Australia's Christabelle Northam and Veronica Tamsitt. The two crews battled, the lead changing several times, but Canada had the better sprint and earned seventh overall.
The Canadian Junior men's four was third in its B final in 6:21.89 (in a photo finish with Poland who took second place in the B in 6:21.01) to finish ninth overall in the World.
The Junior men's double (David Wakulich of St. Catharines, Ont. and Alexander Soutter of Thornhill, Ont.) finished second in the B final in 6:44.53, putting them in eighth place overall.
Junior women's double (Claudia Blandford of Winnipeg, Man. and Alexandria Crawshaw of Victoria, BC) finished 19th overall, after winning their D final race in 7:25.01.
For the junior finals, the weather was hot with a slight headwind - an indication of the conditions that could occur for rowing at the 2008 Olympic Games. China, according to the international rowing federation, put on a world-class event and also showed it's serious about being a world power in rowing, as its junior team took over from regular leaders (Germany) to take the top nation spot overall at this regatta.