It started the journey Wednesday by naming its senior national team for the 2017 World Cup season, which begins with the Lucerne Regatta, starting today until Sunday in Switzerland.
Veterans Conlin McCabe and Will Crothers, both Olympic silver medallists from London 2012, will lead the men’s side. The Victoria City Rowing Club’s Crothers will team in the pair boat with Rio Olympics finalist Kai Langerfeld of Parksville, a Ballenas Secondary and University of Victoria grad. McCabe and Matthew Buie will comprise the double sculls.
The men’s four will consist of Taylor Perry from the UVic Vikes, Brentwood College-grad Martin Barakso from Nanaimo, and Ryan Rosts and David de Groot from St. Catharines, Ont.
The lightweight men’s double is Patrick Keane from UVic and Aaron Lattimer from UBC. Trevor Jones of Peterborough, Ont., will row the single.
The women’s team will be led by an Olympian who has just about done it all. Christine Roper was born in Jamaica, where her father was a beach resort manager, and was once a boarding advisor at St. Michaels University School. She scuba dives and was an NCAA rowing champion with the University of Virginia Cavaliers. Roper leads the Canadian four crew, which includes Susanne Grainger from London, Ont., Nicole Hare of Calgary and Hillary Janssens of Cloverdale.
Ellen Gleadow of Burnaby Lake and Jill Moffatt of Bethany, Ont., will have big foot straps to fill in the women’s lightweight double. That is the event in which now-retired Victoria rowers Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee won silver for Canada’s lone rowing medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Carling Zeeman, 10th at the Rio Olympics, will row the single in Lucerne.
“Obviously, changes have been made — for the better — and it’s an exciting time right now,” said Zeeman, when camp opened in January on Elk Lake.
More than 140 athletes took part in the national team selection process. The big event this year is the 2017 world championships in Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida, from Sept. 24 to Oct. 1.
