Friday September 29, 2017 - Canadian women's lightweight quad finished 4th place in the A final race today. The Canadian crew, Trish Mara, Jenn Casson, Jill Moffatt, and Ellen Gleadow, turned up the heat in the final 500 metres to row evenly with China for bronze medal position. The photo finish resulted in China edging out Canada by only 0.13 seconds.
"I feel really proud of the race we put together. It was definitely our best race," said Moffatt. "We are usually a bit faster in the last 1500 so we stuck to our race plan and caught up. It wasn't quite enough but we are still really proud of our performance."
The Senior World Championships is a brand new experience for all four rowers with an immense amount of progress made over the course of the week. "We are a fairly young crew with minimal international experience, so we had less pressure on us. We had a lot to gain and nothing to lose," said Gleadow.
"There is no greater incentive to work harder to get to that next level," added Casson. "We have a great amount of trust in our coach Dave (Thompson) and each other. We are excited for the future."
The lightweight men's double, Taylor Hardy and Patrick Keane wrapped their event up on a high note, winning the C final. "We executed our race plan exactly how we wanted and came out with a win. The only issue we faced were the melted chocolate bars at the finish!"
Lightweight single sculler Aaron Lattimer wrapped up his event today in 2nd place in C final. "The rower ahead of me was the top ranked rower coming into this event and I knew that sticking with him in the first part of the race would separate us from the field," said Lattimer. "Today I thought I really executed in the final 500m to stay close to the Slovenian. I can't be too disappointed in my 2nd place finish."
Lattimer will return to school next week to complete his degree at UBC in December. "There is lots of learning that I can't take forward for next year. It's a long term process building up towards Toyko 2020."
The men's double Matt Buie and Conlin McCabe raced in the highly competitive C final with a 4th place finish. As a newly formed crew, Olympians McCabe and Buie look to build on the their international racing experience as they move forward in the quadrennial.
Carling Zeeman advances to the A final in women's single scull with a gritty performance in the A/B semis. Fighting back from a slow start, Carling clawed her way back into top 3 contention in the final 250m to secure the final qualification spot in the A finals on Sunday.