Women’s eights back in the hunt

Medal finish would redeem middling season

It’s unclear if the performance of the Canadian women’s eight on Thursday reflected the crew’s quality or reflected a disinterested field in repechage.

Either way, those questions will be answered in Saturday’s A final and, given the rocky journey the eights have taken to Rio, that’s not a bad place to be.

“Our racing season was not what we wanted, but that wasn’t indicative of our training,” said Lesley Thompson-Willie, who handles the coxswain’s duties for the crew. “We’ve really been focused for the last six weeks and it’s been getting better and better. That’s where I felt we should be.”

On Thursday, the Canadian women allayed a number of fears when they roared through the field in repechage, finishing first and securing a place in Saturday’s medal race. Given that the top four boats in repechage were going to advance to the A final, it’s fair to question the intensity of some of the rowers’ efforts.

But after finishing a depressing fifth in their six-boat opening race at Lagoa, the Canadians were in need of some good news and the hope at Rowing Canada is Thursday’s race will spark something in a boat that won silver in London four years ago.

“It was super exciting to see the girls eight,” Martin McElroy, the coach of Canada’s men’s team, said.

“They smashed it. They needed to lift themselves out of the pack and they did it.”

Thompson-Willie said it was a long time coming.

“We’ve been looking all year for the best combination,” she said. “Sometimes we weren’t always in our best combination, but I think we’ve found something that’s working.”

That, at least, would demonstrate a keen sense of timing. The eight-woman crew features three veterans of London — Lauren Wilkinson, Natalie Mastracci and Thompson-Willie — and Cristy Nurse, who was a spare in 2012. They also finished second to the mighty Americans at the 2014 world championships, but they’ve struggled to find their form leading up to Rio.

The 57-year-old Thompson-Willie, who’s in her eighth Olympics, says the crew has always looked good in training but, until Thursday, hadn’t been able to show it in a race. On Saturday, the rowers wearing the Maple Leaf will be in tough against the Americans and a strong crew from Great Britain, but they have a chip and a chair at the big game.

They’ll take their chances with that.