Patricia Obee saw enough drama on the road to London 2012 to fill several Daytime Emmy Awards shows.
A 2011 world championships silver medallist in the women鈥檚 lightweight doubles with fellow Victorian Lindsay Jennerich, she lost a subsequent internal Canadian qualifying race-off on Elk Lake for the right to go to the Olympics, only to be added to the team later on. But the medal-touted boat of Obee and Jennerich faded to a disappointing seventh in London.
People tend to lose sight of the fact that Obee became an Olympian at age 18, leaving her with a huge upside on the road to Rio 2016. She showed that off Saturday by finishing fifth in the women鈥檚 lightweight singles at the World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The Stelly鈥檚 Secondary graduate, who just completed her freshman year rowing for the University of Washington Huskies, won her qualifying races and semifinal in advancing to the final.
鈥淚鈥檓 adjusting well to the single [from rowing in the four and eight for UW during the university season],鈥� Obee said in a statement.
鈥淚 made a lot of technical changes [in moving into the smaller boat for sa国际传媒], and now I just need to focus on keeping the boat speed throughout the race.鈥�
The Canadian women鈥檚 four, which includes Christine Roper of Victoria, won gold Saturday in Lucerne to prove the Canuck highlight of the regatta so far.
Canadian rowing 鈥� based at Elk Lake in Saanich and Lake Fanshawe near London, Ont. 鈥� has been a reliable medal producer for the country at the Summer Olympics but dropped from four medals at Beijing 2008 to two at London 2012.
With a wave of retirements, and some veterans taking the post-Olympic year off to ponder their futures, there is a young Canadian team being readied for Rio 2016 with few sure things or favourites as in the past.
This young group is producing mixed results this weekend at the World Cup in Lucerne.
鈥淲e had some good results. But even for the performances that were not up to par, the athletes are holding themselves accountable for their results,鈥� Rowing sa国际传媒 high performance director Peter Cookson said in a statement.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a learning process. As we go through the next few races, we鈥檒l get better and better at handling the demands and speed of international racing. It鈥檚 a post-Olympic year. Patience is required as athletes discover things about themselves. That will help them as they mature into world-class athletes.鈥�
The World Cup concludes today.
