There was much to take away for the Elk Lake-based Canadian rowing team from World Cup II in Poznan, Poland, not the least of which were the five medals won on the weekend.
It was a good start to a crucial season that will conclude with the 2019 world championships, which also double as the Olympic qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
There are big hopes for some of the Canadian boats after the retooling that took place on Elk Lake following the disappointing showing at the 2016 Rio Olympics, which produced a lone silver medal through the Victoria women鈥檚 lightweight double of Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee.
University of Victoria Vikes graduate Kai Langerfeld of Parksville and 2012 London Olympic silver-medallist Conlin McCabe won bronze Sunday in Poznan in the men鈥檚 pair.
鈥淭his was our first race of the season, so it鈥檚 nice to get a medal,鈥� said McCabe.
The big Canadian story was the return of the men鈥檚 eight as a major factor with bronze Sunday in Poland behind their former great rivals Germany and Great Britain.
sa国际传媒 has a fabled history in the event with Olympic gold medals at Los Angeles in 1984, Barcelona in 1992, Beijing in 2008 and silver at London in 2012. But the program had sunk so low that sa国际传媒 did not even enter a men鈥檚 eight at Rio 2016.
Now there is a promising crew emerging with the likes of Brentwood College grad Martin Barakso of Nanaimo. There is also something decidedly old school in this men鈥檚 eight mix with 2012 London Olympics silver-medallist Will Crothers returning and also 60-year-old coxswain Lesley Thompson-Willie, a five-time Olympic medallist, who has come out of retirement looking for her remarkable 10th Olympic Games appearance.
鈥淭his is all just really huge for the crew,鈥� said Crothers. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 really had a men鈥檚 eight since 2012, so to have this good of a crew at such a level, is really great.鈥�
The final medal Sunday went to Carling Zeeman with bronze in the women鈥檚 single as she looks to make the event relevant again for sa国际传媒 on the world stage for the first time since the halcyon era of Victoria legend Silken Laumann.
sa国际传媒鈥檚 medals from earlier in the weekend came from Jill Moffatt with gold in the women鈥檚 lightweight single, a non-Olympic event, and a Paralympics-event silver medal through Jeremy Hall of Victoria in the men鈥檚 single.
There were two encouraging fourth-place results with Sydney Payne out of Brentwood College and Hillary Janssens of Toronto in the women鈥檚 pair and Patrick Keane of Victoria and Maxwell Lattimer of Delta in the men鈥檚 lightweight double.
A disappointment Sunday might have been the Canadian women鈥檚 eight in sixth place, considering the crew is the defending silver medallist from the 2017 and 2018 world championships. The Canadian crew includes University of Victoria Vikes products Rebecca Zimmerman and Avalon Wasteneys from Campbell River.
鈥淲orld Rowing Cup 2 was a learning and development opportunity for our team with the pinnacle event being the Olympic and Paralympic qualifiers at world championships later this summer,鈥� said Rowing sa国际传媒 high performance director Iain Brambell of Brentwood Bay, in a statement.
鈥淲e prospered with five podium finishes and two very close fourth-place finishes this weekend. We look forward to building on this momentum in the lead up to World Cup 3 [next month in Rotterdam, Netherlands], and world championships.鈥�
The Canadian program has been rebuilt on Elk Lake the past three years by Kiwi coaches Dick Tonks on the men鈥檚 side and Dave Thompson on the women鈥檚 side.
The Canadian program, long based at Elk Lake, used its soon-to-be post-Tokyo home of Quamichan Lake in North Cowichan for the national trials last month to select the team for the World Cup regattas.
