Rowing up the world rankings
There is plenty of time until the next Summer Olympics, so this kind of improvement bodes well for Taylor Perry.
The 24-year-old Ancaster native, now attending the University of Victoria, has just returned from his first senior world rowing championships where his men’s four finished eighth overall.
It was the highest finish of any Canadian men’s entry at the championships, in which Canadian women won a surprising silver in the eights. Just three months earlier, Perry and his teammates were a lowly 15th out of 16 entries at Lucerne, Switzerland in the only World Cup event the Canadian team entered this year.
“Personally, I’m happy with it,” Perry says of finishing second to Spain in the B final at the Worlds in Sarasota, Fla.
“Lucerne was one of the worst performances I’ve had in my life. It was not up to par with what we could do. At this regatta (Worlds), in every race we built on an accomplishment.”
After Lucerne, Rowing Canada changed half the men’s fours’ roster, leaving Perry in the bow and St. Catharine’s Rowing Club’s David de Groot at stroke. But Mackenzie Copp and Olympic veteran Kai Langerfeld were added at seats 2 and 3, respectively.
“Kai brought a wealth of experience with him,” said Perry. “He’s been in fours since 2013.”
In contrast, this season was Perry’s first “sweeping” (pulling on one oar) after he’d spent his competitive career sculling (pulling two oars).
Perry won the men’s single sculls at the 2013 Canada Summer Games and was world Under-23 champion in quadruple sculls in 2015. He also had some chance of being an alternative at the Rio Olympics in 2016, but suffered a serious bulging disc problem in his back and was off the water for a substantial part of the season.
After spending a year studying marketing at Mohawk College, Perry accepted an opportunity to row with coach Alan Oldham at the Fredericton Rowing Club, “and I really grew as an athlete in that year out there.”
He was rowing for the FRC when he won the Canada Games. He moved to Victoria to be part of the national team program and now has his sights set squarely on the 2020 Games in Tokyo. It’s possible that might even be as part of a men’s eight team.
“We’re trying to build a good, positive culture,” Perry says of the overall men’s program. “There’s been talk of bringing the eights back. We may try to have it next year. We didn’t have enough (rowers) on the same level this year to produce a fast eight.”
At Worlds, the Canadian men’s fours won their repechage handily, then were fourth in their semifinal, missing the medals race (A final) by one boat. Their semi was won by Australia, the eventual champions. In fact, the top three in the A final were also the medal winners from Rio.
“The racing was so close,” Perry says. “Every race we executed the way we wanted to, but we weren’t quite fast enough. Now we have an idea of what we have to do. The little areas where you need to make improvement.”
Perry, who rowed for the Leander Boat Club, has returned to the University of Victoria, where he’s in the second year as an English major, and now starts on Rowing Canada’s off-season program.