Canadian crew finds stroke
Men’s eights return to acting as a team, rather than individual rowers
ETON-DORNEY — Brian Price, who’d watched his proud crew crumble like a tea biscuit under their first exposure to Olympic pressure, talked about a lot of things on Monday.
But mostly he talked about the sense of relief that enveloped the Canadian men’s eight after they decided to row like the Canadian men’s eight.
“(In the heat) we rowed like eight different people,” said the veteran cox. “Today we rowed like a crew.”
As a result, they’ll now row for a gold medal on Wednesday.
The defending Olympic champions, who looked anything but the defending Olympic champions in their first appearance on Lake Dorney, righted the ship on Monday, rowing to a second-place finish in their six-boat repêchage. In finishing half a second behind the winning British boat, the Canadians punched their ticket to the final in the marquee race of the Olympic rowing regatta.
They also restored a sense of confidence and equilibrium in their crew after a disastrous fourth- and lastplace performance in their Saturday heat.
“It was pretty obvious in the heat we were a bit out of control,” said Price, a veteran of three Olympics and the gold-medal turn in Beijing. “I think some of these young guys got so amped up, there wasn’t any control. It was pretty obvious today we were much more in control. We were rowing like ourselves, like the Canadian eight you’re used to seeing.”
Elsewhere on Lake Dorney Monday, the Canadian men’s fours advanced to the semifinal round with a third-place finish in their heat. The team flew into London under the radar but their coach, Terry Paul, said they have medal potential.
“I believe so,” Paul said of the crew, which includes William Dean, Anthony Jacob, Derek O’Farrell and Mike Wilkinson. “Coming into it, I felt the Brits and Aussies had changed the game. Now it’s just a matter of who’s going to emerge from that group below them. We’re right there. We just haven’t found it yet, but I think we’re hitting our stride here.”
The eight, for their part, ceded a half-boat lead to the Brits over the first 1,000 metres but were the fastest boat in the race over the final 1,000 metres.
The Canadian take, of course, is that they’ll carry that momentum into Wednesday’s final. It’s a lovely thought, although the heavily favoured Germans — as well as the British and American boats — will have something to say about that.
“This was a much better representation of what sort of crew we are,” said Andrew Byrnes, another veteran of the Beijing boat. “It’s a younger group. The pressure got to us a bit [on Saturday]. We were pretty happy we set it right today.”
Part of that younger group is 21-year-old Conlin McCabe, a 6-foot-8 powerhouse from Brockville who’s considered the rising star of the Canadian boat and who confessed to suffering from a spell of the vapours on Saturday.
“I knew tons of people were going to be watching back home in Brockville and it was the first time they were going to see what I’ve been doing for the last four years,” McCabe said. “They were up at 5 a.m., and they were so excited. Then to go out and do something like that was, ‘Oh great.’ We just said let’s hit the re-set button and get back to basics. We’re definitely happier with this performance and that’s going to set us up for the final. Hopefully we can show everyone what we’re made of and row our best race.”