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With Rio in sight, Island rowers begin World Cup season

The metaphorical samba beat grows ever louder as August nears. The winter of training is done on Elk Lake in Saanich and Lake Fanshawe in London, Ont. It’s time to get on with it.

The metaphorical samba beat grows ever louder as August nears. The winter of training is done on Elk Lake in Saanich and Lake Fanshawe in London, Ont. It’s time to get on with it.

Victoria-based Rowing Canada released its list of 28 athletes Tuesday for World Cup I from April 15-17 in Varese, Italy. The list can basically be seen as the broad roster outline for the 2016 Rio Olympic team. Included are six crews that have already qualified for Rio.

Among them is the highly regarded women’s lightweight double sculls crew of Islanders Lindsay Jennerich out of Claremont Secondary and Patricia Obee from Stelly’s Secondary.

The Canadian women’s eight is also a threat for the Olympic podium at Rio and includes Christine Roper of Victoria and UVic Vikes product Antje von Seydlitz-Kurzbach.

The Elk Lake-based men’s four consists of 2012 London Olympics silver-medallists Conlin McCabe and Will Crothers along with Kai Langerfeld of Parksville and Tim Schriver of Thedford, Ont.

“Canadian rowers are heading into an intense period of competition, with the Olympic and Paralympic Games quickly approaching,” said Peter Cookson, the high-performance director for Rowing Canada.

World Cup II is May 27-29 in Lucerne, Switzerland, and World Cup III in Poznan, Poland, from June 17-19.

“The World Cups will be a perfect opportunity for the rowers to demonstrate the hard work they have put in during the winter and to work on the things that will lead to success in Rio in a few months time,” added Cookson, in a statement.

The men’s quad sculls, which has yet to qualify for Rio, includes Olympic silver-medallist Rob Gibson and Julien Bahain of Victoria City Rowing Club. Kate Sauks of Victoria City will contest the lightweight women’s single sculls in Italy, while Brendan Hodge out of Brentwood College is in the lightweight men’s four boat and Caileigh Filmer of Vic City and Jennifer Martins of Toronto are in the women’s pair.

The Canadian rowing roster for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics will be announced June 28 in Toronto.

Canada won two rowing medals, both silvers in the men’s and womens’ eights, at London 2012.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com