Sculler rowing for gold at Pan Am Games
St. Catharines club’s Finley is competing in a men’s single as part of Canadian crew
Matt Finley hopes to add the line “Pan American Games medallist” to his rowing resumé.
A Brock University graduate and one Canadian university rower of the year, Finley will be competing in men’s singles at the quadrennial games getting underway Friday and continuing until Aug. 11 in Lima, Peru.
The St. Catharines Rowing Club member, speaking from the experience of representing Canada at the world under-23 championships, said he wouldn’t begin thinking that he is competing for his country until the late stages of the race.
“The focus doesn’t change when you’re rowing for Canada, because your mindset is to beat every other boat this is on the water,” he said. “If you’re ahead of everyone in the final stretch of the race, then it starts to hit you that you are about to do something special.”
In 2015, Finley won gold for Canada in a men’s quad at the world under-23 championships after finishing seventh in the same boat the year before in his first season on the national team.
“Rowing is a lot more mentally and physically demanding at the next level,” he said. “There is more room for error rowing at the lower levels, but once you are at that next level, there isn’t any room.
“If you go out too hard, you could get tired and get left behind,” he added.
The interactive arts and science major who rowed five years at Brock said his family and Brock head coach Peter Somerwill have had the biggest influence on his rowing career.
“I wouldn’t be rowing if I didn’t have the support from my family, and I wouldn’t have a lot of my opportunities if I didn’t go to Brock and row for Peter.”
Canadian won 11 medals — eight gold, one silver, two bronze — at the 2015 Pan Am Games when rowing events were contested on Martindale Pond in St. Catharines.