Canada's up-and-coming men's four raced to the podium in Japan today at the 2005 World Rowing Championships.
Rob Weitemeyer of Coquitlam, B.C., Peter Dembicki of West Vancouver, B.C., Andrew Ireland of Hamilton, Ont., and Kip McDaniel of Cobble Hill, B.C. picked up bronze in 6:16.02. Great Britain, favored to win this event, was first in 6:11.59, and the Dutch crew was second in 6:13.23. Denmark, the U.S. and New Zealand finished out of the medals.
Canada was in fourth at the 500 metre mark, but half way through the race (at 1000 metres), the crew was in a solid third.
"With 400 metres to go, I saw the U.S. was behind us and I knew we had a shot. We went for it the whole way through. We stuck to our plan and it was awesome," said Peter Dembicki. "This is an Olympic-class event and all eyes were on us. We wanted to have a solid row no matter what, and that's what we did. It's surreal, it's still sinking in."
Great Britain has a tradition of winning the fours and raced Canada to a photo finish - both with different crew lineups - at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
"Being that we were a new crew, getting to the podium was a long shot. It was a bit unexpected, but great for us," said Andrew Ireland, who was a spare for the men's program at the 2004 Olympics.
"The headwind conditions don't favor a smaller crew, which we are," said Kip McDaniel, whose father won a silver medal rowing in the 1967 Pan Am Games for Canada. "But we had nothing to lose, and we just did what we were trained to do."
"They've been brilliant all week," said the four's coach, Howie Campbell of Victoria. "They acted like they had a lot more experience than they have on paper. The race went pretty much to plan, and they were really strong in the third 500." This is Campbell's first time coaching an Olympic-class boat to a medal.
In the other Canadian final today, the men's pair was fourth in 6:59.26. New Zealand - winning four gold medals in a row in Olympic-class events today - was first in 6:52.51. South Africa picked up silver in 6:55.52.
Canada was sixth off the start, but had a strong finish to move up to fourth. "Nothing really went wrong at the start, it just wasn't as sharp as the other crews," said Chris Jarvis of St. Catharines, who rowed with Victoria's Malcolm Howard.
"We just weren't as sharp as we needed to be in the first 1000 -- our inexperience showed in the rougher conditions. Fourth in this field is respectable and we learned a lot from this regatta. We felt we had more to show out there and hopefully we'll get another chance to prove it," said Howard.
Also today, FISA, the world rowing federation, announced the following about the world's best times at this regatta:
"Based on the recommendation of the FISA Athletes Commission, the FISA Council determined that race times recorded on regatta courses with a significant water mass flow will not be considered as world best times.
Based on this principle, the race times recorded at the 2005 World Championships in Gifu, Japan will not be considered and the world best times up until these Championships will be returned to the record books.
The FISA Council and relevant Commissions will start a study to determine the threshold level of water mass flow for future FISA Events."
Canada's lightweight women's quad had a world's best time earlier in the week, which now will not appear on the record books.
The men's and women's lightweight quads race tomorrow, along with the coxed four and the men's eight B final.