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Just like ol’ times for Canadian rowers

It’s too early to call it a return to the glory days, if that is even possible in the increasingly competitive water wars.

It’s too early to call it a return to the glory days, if that is even possible in the increasingly competitive water wars. But it’s a fledgling rebuild that deserves some acknowledgement, after the once-mighty Canadian rowing team was reduced to a single silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, won by the Victoria women’s lightweight double of Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee.

The Elk Lake-based Canadian team has qualified six boats for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics through the just-completed world championships.

Mount Douglas Secondary-graduate Caileigh Filmer of the University of Victoria Vikes and Hillary Janssens of Cloverdale, world bronze medallists in the pair event earlier in the weekend, pulled double duty in helping also qualify the women’s eight for Tokyo 2020. The eights final was Sunday with Canada finishing off the podium but claiming the fourth of five Tokyo berths available. Canada was silver medallist in the previous two world championships, so slipped a bit, but must still be considered a potential Olympic medallist boat for next year. Also in the eight is Avalon Wasteneys, the UVic Vikes rower from Campbell River.

The Canadian women’s double of Andrea Proske from the Victoria City Rowing Club and Gabrielle Smith of Unionville, Ont., had a close miss in fourth place Sunday but also did enough to qualify to Tokyo 2020.

“The result was really tight,” said Smith.

“We executed our plan well so you can’t be disappointed in that. It is obviously frustrating to be that close. But Olympic qualification was definitely a highlight this week. It’s going to fuel a pretty good winter of training [on Elk Lake].”

Another notable Olympic qualifying boat was the Canadian men’s pair of veterans Kai Langerfeld, a UVic Vikes graduate from Parksville, and 2012 Olympic silver-medallist Conlin McCabe.

“The Olympics are on the line,” said Langerfeld.

“It feels really good to get the job done.”

The Ballenas Secondary graduate is following in his dad York Langerfeld’s oar wake. The elder Langerfeld represented Canada in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Brentwood College-graduate Sydney Payne is also Tokyo Olympics-bound with the Canadian women’s four.

There are also hard decisions upcoming this winter on Elk Lake ahead of the last-chance Olympic qualifier in May in Lucerne, Switzerland.

A compelling emerging Canadian storyline was stymied over the weekend at the worlds when Canada placed eighth in the men’s eight and must now look ahead to the last-chance qualifier. Canada has a has a storied history in the event with crews coming out of Elk Lake to win Olympic gold medals at Los Angeles in 1984, Barcelona in 1992, Beijing in 2008 and silver at London in 2012. After not even entering a men’s eight at the 2016 Rio Olympics, something considered unthinkable in the past, the reborn Canadian boat was experiencing at re-emergence over the summer with the likes of Benjamin De Wit of Port Alice and Brentwood College-graduate Martin Barakso of Nanaimo. There was also a dip into the past with 2012 London Olympics silver-medallist Will Crothers returning and also 60-year-old legendary coxswain Lesley Thompson-Willie, a five-time Olympic medallist, who has come out of retirement looking for her remarkable 10th Olympic Games appearance.

But now that storyline will have to wait until the final Tokyo qualifier next spring to be fully realized.

The national team, long based at Elk Lake, will relocate to Quamichan Lake in North Cowichan after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.