Canadian crews managed an impressive three medals - out of four opportunities today - at the Rowing World Cup in Bled, Slovenia.
The women's pair of Krista Guloien of Port Moody, B.C. and Ashley Brzozowicz of Toronto, Ont. won gold this morning in 7:20.60, China was second in 7:22.81, and Susan Francia and Erin Cafaro of the United States - the reigning World Champions - finished in bronze position in 7:22.86. Germany and two crews from Great Britain rounded out the race.
"Today's race was our best of the three," said Brzozowicz, who now makes her home in London, Ont. "We have happily learned a lot from this regatta; making progress from the heat through the semis and into the final. I don't think it gets much better than setting out to achieve a goal and achieving it!"
Said Guloien: "We are feeling very motivated to get home and do more work. This is just the beginning of the racing season and what a great way to start it out. This has been an all-around great experience, and we have now packed up our momentum and are taking it home with us!"
Rowing in the lightweight double together for the past few years helped Doug Vandor and Cam Sylvester lock up a win in their event today.
"Doug and I are happy with the race," said Sylvester "After a hard winter of training it was nice to put our fitness to the test to see how we stand against some of the competition. We're looking forward to getting back to Victoria to continue our training and preparation for English Henley and Lucerne (World Cup 3)."
Vandor (Dewittville, Que.) and Sylvester (Caledon, Ont.) led the way down the 2000-metre course on Lake Bled, picking up gold in 6:27.80. Italy (6:31.87) and France (6:33.24) took silver and bronze.
An up and coming group of athletes in the men's four had Canada's third medal - a bronze. Canada finished in 6:09.04 - with perennially strong Great Britain in gold position in 6:06.44, and the Serbians taking silver in 6:08.18.
"We analyzed the heat and semi-final data from the time sheets and our GPS unit to come up with a strategy of how to race the final successfully," said the four's coach, Terry Paul. "The guys went out in only their third race together and committed to the plan and executed. We were happy to have the race opportunity that the RCA High Performance program gave us and we look forward to the next steps early in this 2010 season."
In her first World Cup regatta, Isolda Penney of Kingston, Ont. finished sixth in today's final in 7:48.09. Multiple Olympic medalist Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus won the women's single event in 7:36.03.
Malcolm Howard of Victoria, B.C. took charge of his B final race to win it in 7:05.48 - finishing seventh overall. Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic won the overall prize in the single in 6:49.58.
The men's double - Gabe Bergen (100 Mile House, B.C.) and Steven van Knotsenburg (Beamsville, Ont.) - also took top spot in today's B final (seventh overall) in 6:27.53.
The Canadian light four of Matt Jensen of Innerkip, Ont., John Sasi of North Delta, B.C., Rares Crisan of Mississauga Ont., and Mike Lewis of Victoria, B.C. finished fourth (10th overall) in today's B final in 6:10.31.
"There were a number of encouraging results today," said Peter Cookson, Rowing Canada's High Performance Director. "It's still early days with regards to our season but the team is feeling positive. We're going back to our home bases now to regroup and prepare for our next World Cup (in Lucerne in July)."
Yesterday, Lindsay Jennerich of Victoria was fourth overall in the lightweight single and the men's pair finished was fifth in the C final.
Canada sent nine crews to this first World Cup of 2010. Overall, Great Britain stood out from the pack - with medals in 10 of the 14 Olympic events, six of them gold.
Full results, reports, and more quotes at www.worldrowing.com