The opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics began 颅Friday with a solitary figure on a 颅treadmill. It was a simple but poignant evocation of the last 16 months. But the delay wasn鈥檛 all that bad for some athletes.
Canadian rowers spent one more year training on Elk Lake and Quamichan Lake than they expected. The extra time may have made medal threats Caileigh Filmer of Victoria and Hillary Janssens of Cloverdale 鈥� world champions in 2018 and third-ranked heading into Tokyo 鈥� even more formidable in the women鈥檚 pair. They swept to victory in their opening race Friday to advance to the semifinals Tuesday. The Canadian duo was more than two seconds clear of runner-up Romania with Italy third, U.S. fourth and Greece fifth.
Trevor Jones also clearly made use of the extra training time on the Island, winning his opening Olympic men鈥檚 singles race in Tokyo to advance to the quarter-finals Monday.
鈥淚鈥檓 a year older, I got a year extra of training, and I definitely think I鈥檓 way faster than I would have been racing here a year ago,鈥� said Jones. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 perfect but I used the extra year the best that I could.鈥�
What made his opening-round victory so impressive was that the Peterborough, Ont., native bested 2016 Rio Olympic 颅doubles silver-medallist 颅Mindaugas Gri拧konis, shunting the 颅Lithuanian to second place.
鈥淚鈥檓 just kind of having fun with it,鈥� said Jones.
鈥淸I鈥檓] getting to race some of the best rowers in the world 鈥� it鈥檚 some of the fastest people on the planet. I know I鈥檓 fast. I鈥檓 just going to have fun and enjoy the experience and just kind of take it day by day.鈥�
The Island-based Canadian rowing team got off to a strong start in other events too with Carling Zeeman placing second in her women鈥檚 singles opener to advance to the quarter-finals and Jessica Sevick and Gabrielle Smith second in the women鈥檚 double to advance to the A/B semifinals.
鈥淚t hasn鈥檛 sunk in. It鈥檚 honestly surreal,鈥� said Sevick.
鈥淓ven with COVID, it鈥檚 been an amazing experience so far.鈥�
The Canadian rowing team will move to Quamichan Lake in North Cowichan post-Tokyo after decades on Elk Lake in Saanich.
