Keeping nerves steady and avoiding panic, a mental trait learned over thousands of hours training on Elk Lake, got the Canadian men’s four and women’s lightweight double through to the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.
Top-three in the semifinals Thursday at the 2015 world rowing championships in France, which are also doubling as the official Olympic qualifier, advanced crews directly to Rio 2016.
In last place at the midway point of the 2,000-metre semifinals, the Victoria lightweight double of Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee rowed through five boats to win the race and qualify for the Rio Olympics.
“We know what we are capable of and have lots of trust and confidence in each other,” said Obee by phone from Lac d’Aiguebelette.
“You only have to be in front at the finish line and we budget for that. We don’t worry about it before that.”
That’s a heck of a way to race, but it has carried the Victoria duo to Rio.
“It looks weird, but it’s our thing,” said Obee, a product of Stelly’s rowing while Jennerich started in the Claremont program.
The Elk Lake-based men’s four were looking comfortable but suddenly faced catastrophe when they caught a crab, which is rowing lingo for a mis-stroke. But Kai Langerfeld of Parksville, Tim Schrijver, and 2012 London Olympics silver-medallists Conlin McCabe and Will Crothers used their veteran wiles to recover and finish third behind Italy and Great Britain to qualify for Rio.
“When we caught the bad stroke, I stayed calm and made some calls to get us back together quickly . . . and Schrijver did a great job of recovering his oar quickly,” said Crothers, the crew captain who strokes from the bow seat.
The result made Langerfeld, a graduate of Parksville Ballenas Secondary, a second-generation Olympian. Dad York Langerfeld rowed in the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics.
Islanders Jennerich and Obee, the 2014 world championship silver medallists and London 2012 veterans, are going to their second Olympics.
“We secured a spot for Rio and that was job No.1,” said Jennerich.
“Coming out of Lucerne [a shocking 14th place finish at the last World Cup series race] that was a pretty tough job. But we always knew Lucerne was a blip. We know our best can be the best [in the world]. It’s all about performing our ultimate race in Rio.”
The men’s pair of Martin Barakso of Nanaimo and Michael Evans of Victoria finished out of the top three in a semifinal won by Rio-bound New Zealand, Serbia and Italy. The Canadian pair still have a chance of qualifying for the Olympics through the B final. Eleven boats will go through to Rio from the worlds. Six have already qualified through the semifinals, leaving room for the top-five finishers in the six-boat ‘B’ final Saturday. So Barakso and Evans are still on the cusp for Brazil.
It is sort of the same story for the Elk Lake-based Canadian men’s quad — comprised of Matt Buie, Julien Bahain, Will Dean and 2012 London silver-medallist Rob Gibson — who were fifth in their semifinal Thursday. But with only eight boats from this class advancing to Rio, the Canadians need to finish in the top-two of the ‘B’ final Saturday.
The women’s pair of Cristy Nurse from Georgetown, Ont., and Jennifer Martins of Toronto were third in the semifinals to qualify that Canadian boat for Rio.
The finals and ‘B’ finals are Saturday and Sunday. The highly-regarded Canadian women’s eight race Sunday.
Meanwhile, the legs/trunk/arms mixed cox crew of Victoria Nolan, Curtis Halladay, Andrew Todd, Victoria’s Veronique Boucher and cox Kristen Kit won the bronze medal at the worlds Thursday to qualify for the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
