Canada’s defending-champion women’s eight rowing team has qualified for Saturday’s finals after finishing second in Thursday’s repechage.
The Canadians finished with a time of six minutes 4.81 seconds, slightly behind the American team that finished less than a second earlier.
Australia and Italy finished third and fourth respectively in the repechage and have also qualified for the finals, joining Great Britain and Romania who won their heats on Monday.
“We really stuck to our rhythm, we didn’t do anything different from what we had planned. In an Olympic year you don’t really get many races, so every race is another opportunity to fine-tune,” said Canadian rower Abby Dent of Kenora, Ont.
“We did a really good job of sticking to our rhythm. I’m excited to show the world what we’ve got on Saturday.”
Denmark, finishing fifth in the repechage with a time of six minutes 22.21 seconds, was eliminated.
“I’m pretty excited. This was a good race, but there’s always more left in stock,” said Dent.
The Canadians are in Paris as the defending gold medallists in the event after winning at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
The team returned four members from the Tokyo games: Coxswain Kristen Kit of St. Catharines, Ont., Calgary’s Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Toronto’s Sydney Payne and Avalon Wasteneys of Campbell River, B.C.
Five others — Dent, Victoria’s Caileigh Filmer, Maya Meschkuleit of Mississauga, Ont., Jessica Sevick of Strathmore, Alta., and Kristina Walker of Wolfe Island, Ont. — joined the returning members on this year’s team.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2024.