BANYOLES, Spain — Canadian rowing crews earned four medals at a World Cup competition Sunday.
Doug Vandor of Dewittville, Que. and Cam Sylvester of Caledon, Ont., raced to a silver medal in the lightweight men’s double event. The Italian double of Elia Luini and Marcello Miani won gold in six minutes 59.29 seconds, while Vandor and Sylvester placed second in 7:01.57. A French crew was third in 7:02.23.
Andrew Byrnes of Toronto, Ont., Gabe Bergen of 100 Mile House, B.C., Steve Van Knotsenburg of Beamsville, Ont. and Doug Csima of Oakville, Ont., picked up a bronze in men’s quad. Poland — Olympic champions who have rowed together as a crew for four years — and Great Britain finished first and second, respectively.
“The water was very choppy at the starting gates with a driving head wind, but we moved off the blocks fairly well given the chop and had a few seats lead on the field,“ said Van Knotsenburg
“Poland drew level with us at the 500-metre mark and we failed to get into a long, solid rhythm through the middle of the race, which hurt us in the second half.
“We put in a good effort but could have rowed much cleaner, efficiently and stronger through the middle of the race.”
The Canadian lightweight women’s double of Lindsay Jennerich of Victoria, B.C. and Sheryl Preston of North Delta, B.C., placed third in 7:32.92. Germany (7:27.17) and Spain (7:29.30) claimed the top two spots on the podium.
Derek O’Farrell of Unionville, Ont. and James Dunaway of Duncan, B.C., earned a bronze medal in the men’s pair event, finishing in a time of 6:38.02. Crews from Great Britain (6:31.70) and South Africa (6:33.85) took gold and silver.
The lightweight men’s four of Mike Lewis of Victoria, John Sasi of North Delta, B.C., Terry McKall of Edmonton, and Tim Myers of Penticton, B.C., finished fourth in the B final to place 10th overall.
“I am pleased with the results from today’s finalists,” said lead coach Mike Spracklen. “It showed good effect from a hard winter’s training and has given us a basis to move on, but the World Cup performances also showed that we have a lot of work to do.”