BREST, Belarus - Western Mustangs varsity rower Sarah Black (Ottawa) helped Canada's women's 8 to win a bronze medal at the 2010 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Brest, Belarus.
It was one of two Canadian medals with the Canadian men's pair of Conlin McCabe of Brockville, Ont., and Anthony Jacob of Vancouver, B.C., winning silver.
In the women's eight, the Canadian eight had a solid start in its final race, but the U.S. took over by the middle and stayed up front. Canada and New Zealand kept pushing each other, and although the Canadians put on a great last effort, they didn't catch New Zealand.
The Americans' winning time was 6:31.97, next was New Zealand in 6:36.48, and Canada won the bronze in 6:38.16, over three seconds ahead of fourth-place Germany (6:41.83)
The Canadian eight overcame a challenging week to pick up this medal - one of the crew members, Rosie DeBoef, was too ill to row, so lightweight Patricia Obee of Victoria, B.C., stepped in to replace her, rowing in both her event, the lightweight double, and filling in for DeBoef.
"There was no question that we were going to give it all that we had today," said member of the bronze-medal crew, Lauren Wilkinson. "We weren't just rowing for ourselves, we were rowing for Rosie and for Patricia, and for the rest of the Canadian team - including all the coaches and support staff who have helped us through the week."
The eight for this race included Black, (coxswain) Kristen Kit of St. Catharines, Ont., Laura Cowal of Thorold, Ont., Natalie Mastracci of Thorold, Ont., Wilkinson of North Vancouver, B.C., Christine Roper of Reading, Jamaica, Catherine Hart of Westmount, Que, and Ashton Brown of Calgary.
"We are all proud of the way the women handled the changes in the lineup this week and of they way they performed today," said Peter Cookson, High Performance Director for Rowing Canada Aviron and a Western alumnus. "Overall, the Under 23 program is an important stage in our athlete development strategy and we will continue to use and expand on this program to help prepare athletes for the senior team."
Full results are available at www.worldrowing.com or visit www.rowingcanada.org for more information on the national team program.
