Competition for jobs is good in sports and keeps the incumbents from complacency.
The North Cowichan-based Canadian women’s rowing eight, which has qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games after winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics, looks as if it will have plenty of battles for seats this winter on Quamichan Lake as the developmental Canadian eight won gold Tuesday at the 2023 Pan Am Games in Santiago.
sa国际传媒 was across the 2,000-metre course in six minutes and 10.7 seconds. The U.S. took silver in 6:14.17 and host Chile the bronze in 6:17.78. In honour of the gold medallists in the Games, a song from their nation is played following the anthem and medal presentations. For the Canadian women’s eight it was Man! I Feel Like A Woman by Shania Twain and the Canuck rowers rocked to it along with their American and Chilean counterparts on the podium.
Coxswain Kristen Kit is the only eights crew member in Santiago who was also in the world championships in September in Belgrade, Serbia, where sa国际传媒’s A team clinched its Olympic berth for Paris. The Pan Am Games are an Olympic qualifier in 21 sports but not for rowing. But that mattered little to Kit.
“I never thought I would have the chance to race at a Pan American Games and we won,” Kit said in a statement.
“This will be in my memory and heart forever. Getting to work with such an amazing group of talented women who are so talented and yet so positive is something I’m going to keep with me for the rest of my life.”
The gold-medallist Canadian crew members in the Pan Am Games were Kit, Kendra Hartley, Olivia McMurray, Alizée Brien, Parker Illingworth, Stelly’s Secondary graduate and UVic Vikes rower Abby Speirs, Shaye De Paiva, Abby Dent and Leia Till. They all live and train in the Duncan area, where the Rowing sa国际传媒 national training centre is located after four decades on Elk Lake, and all will be pushing the ‘A’ team members for Olympic seats in the eight over the winter of training on Quamichan Lake.
The Island-based Canadian rowing team has accounted for three medals in the Santiago Pan Am Games with silver and bronze also in the women’s pair and quad sculls with Dent in on all of them.
“This is a really exciting opportunity to represent sa国际传媒 and wear the Maple Leaf,” said Dent, in a statement.
“This is an exciting step in my rowing career and another chance to step up to the challenge and show people what we have.”
Meanwhile, veteran Victoria swimmer Jeremy Bagshaw won bronze in the men’s 4x200-metre freestyle relay Tuesday with Canadian teammates Finlay Knox, Alex Axon and Javier Acevedo in a time of 7:14.76.
Also in swimming, Danielle Hanus, twice named UVic Vikes female athlete of the year, has had a multi-medals Games for the second time running. The Vikes great has won two bronze medals in Santiago to follow up her four medals from the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru.
Hanus made the podium in the women’s 100-metre backstroke in 1:01.49 and also has a relay medal in Chile.
“I knew it would be a fun [100 backstroke] race for me, so I just got in and did my best,” said the 25-year-old, who won silver in the event at the 2019 Lima Games.
“I kind of went in with zero expectations, it was like, whatever happens happens, just go have fun. I can never really truly express how grateful I am to my family and coaches for always being there supporting me.”
Among them was UVic Vikes veteran mentor Peter Vizsolyi.
In other Canadian news Tuesday at the Games, Olympic-champion swimmer Maggie Mac Neil won her Canadian record-tying fourth gold medal, this one in the women’s 50-metre freestyle, to follow up her five medals in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Canadian diver Pamela Ware won the women’s three-metre springboard for her second gold medal of the Games. Canadian gymnast Felix Dolci also won his second gold of the Games by adding the men’s floor exercise to his previous win in the all-around.
The 2023 Pan Am Games, with 44 Island athletes on the 473-member Canadian team, began Friday run through Nov. 5 in the Chilean capital.
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