Canada managed a silver medal in the lightweight men's pair and a berth in the men's single and lightweight double finals tomorrow - despite delays, hot conditions and a raging storm late today - at the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland.
After a 90-minute delay to repair the course later in the day, an unfazed Malcolm Howard was second in the men's single semi, and moves now to the final of this Olympic event.
"(Assistant men's coach) Allison and I have been working hard to improve with each race and even though it was stressful with the race delay this afternoon, I felt I handled it well," said Howard. "Tomorrow I'm expecting a tight race, but I'm looking forward to it. With every race I improve and I'm keeping positive. I see every race as an opportunity to learn."
Britain's Alan Campbell was first in 6:55.18; Howard second in 6:56.27, Sweden's Lassi Karonen third in 6:56.45 and then followed Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania just missing out on making the final with a time of 6:56.73. Germany and Belgium finished behind the pack to round out this field.
"I didn't quite know at the finish that I was second, but I should have with the amount of looking around that I do! I pushed hard through the middle and I'm happy with the result," said Howard.
Great Britain, Canada and Sweden will face strong competitors from Czech Republic, New Zealand and Norway tomorrow.
Matt Jensen of Innerkip, Ont. and Rares Crisan of Mississauga Ont. won their semi this morning. In a gutsy race they came from behind to win in 6:46.27, France 2 was second in 6:46.49 and Chile was third in 6:47.36.
They followed this with a silver-medal performance in Canada's only final of today (the rest of the finals are rowed tomorrow). The French 1 boat took first in 6:43.35, followed by Jensen and Crisan in 6:44.39, and another French boat in third in 6:45.45.
"With every race we've been getting better. We had a chance to catch the French near the end, but it just didn't happen," said Jensen, who is more experienced in the pair. "Overall I'm happy for Rares winning his first international medal and it was a good result."
Isolda Penney of Kingston, ON, finished a very close fourth, to just miss making the women's single final.
Czech Republic was first in 7:36.44, Sweden was second in 7:39.28, Great Britain (7:42.28) was third in a photo finish with Canada in 7:42.30. Penney must now row in the B final.
Doug Vandor of Dewittville, Que. and Cameron Sylvester of Caledon, Ont. will row tomorrow in the A final after finishing third in the semi.
New Zealand's Storm Uru and Peter Taylor won this semi in 6:24.72; Fangbing Zhang and Tiexin Wang of China were second 6:27.53, and Canada crossed the line in 6:29.95 - the top three advance. These crews will also face Great Britain, Italy and Germany in the A final.
Olympic bronze medalist, Tracy Cameron of Shubenacadie, NS, rowing here with Queen's University Phd student Katya Herman of Sudbury, ON, just missed out on qualifying for the finals with a fourth-place performance (7:04.86) this afternoon. Germany (7:01.6), Greece (7.02.02) and Australia (7.02.27) move forward as top three finishers from this semi.
The four is Will Crothers of Kingston, Ont., Fraser Berkhout of St. Catharines, Ont., David Calder of Victoria, and Mike Wilkinson of Vancouver, BC, got off to a decent start in their semi-today, but couldn't hold on in this strong field and do not advance. It was a photo-finish between the top two - Australia and New Zealand - and the U.S. took the final qualifying position from this race. Canada was sixth in 6:01.38
The women's double of Romina Stefancic of Victoria and Peggy DeVos of Kamloops, BC, were fifth in their semi today in 7:15.08, and must now row in the B final for places seven to 12.
Sheryl Preston of North Delta, B.C. rowed first-thing this morning in the lightweight women's single semi. She finished fifth, but then came back to win the B final and finish seventh overall in 7:54.88.
The lightweight men's four finished third in today's C final for this event - ending up 15th overall in 6:08.65. The U.S. took the C final in 6:06.56 and South Africa was second in 6:08.01.
Yesterday, both the Canadian men's and women's eights, and the women's pair won their heats to advance directly to the final.
"We witnessed some exciting races here in Lucerne already, and tomorrow promises to deliver more close races," said Canada's High Performance Director Peter Cookson. "Today we were on the wrong side of some very close races, including a photo finish in the women's single, and tomorrow we look to be on the right side of some equally exciting contests."
Canada will have five boats in tomorrows A finals.