Ontario captures gold in rowing

For 80 days in St. Catharines, the Ontario men’s eight with coxswain rowing team worked toward one goal — excellence at the Canada Summer Games.

When they shifted to Kenora, Ont., site of the rowing competition more than 200 kilometres east of the Games’ headquarters in Winnipeg, the team of nine accelerated its team bonding even more. Their athletic residence was in a high school and their rooms were grouped together.

So when it came time to race Friday morning, the Ontario team pulled together like never before and its reward was the Canada Games gold medal. Ontario was the only boat to break six minutes over the 2,000-metre course, finishing in five minutes, 53.24 seconds, while British Columbia was second in 6:00.99 and Alberta claimed third in 6:07.59.

Carleton University commerce student Hunter Amesbury of Burlington had a seat in the Ontario boat and was one of six Ottawa- Gatineau athletes to win or share in five medals on the final day of the first week of two-week Games competition. It also was Amesbury’s second gold medal in as many days.

The other medallists were MarieLeatitia Ziba, Gatineau, girls’ U17 basketball, gold; Julie Chadwick, Ottawa, and Taylor Featherstone, Ottawa, girls’ U17 basketball, silver; Aaron Wong Sing, Ottawa, sailing, silver; and Khalifa Koulamallah, Gatineau, boys’ U17 basketball, bronze.

“It was an amazing race,” said Amesbury, adding Ontario tracked down B.C. and Alberta in the first 1,000 metres and owned the race in the second kilometre. “We’ve been together so long that we’ve developed friendships with each other. When you row that long together, it’s easy to link up. We didn’t feel stressed or pressured.”

The victory was the second gold medal for Amesbury, who teamed with Luke Gadsdon of Hamilton on Thursday to win the men’s pair over the same two provinces.

The men’s eight with coxswain was the final rowing race of the competition and it gave Ontario crews victories in six of seven men’s finals.

Quebec had a strong fourth quarter and defeated Ontario 70-57 in the girls’ U17 basketball final. Ontario led 32-30 at halftime.

Chadwick, who will attend Robert Morris University, an NCAA Division 1 school, in the fall of 2018, connected on all six of her two-point field-goal attempts and led Ontario with 13 points.