Women pull to bronze in pairs

After leading halfway through the gruelling 2,000-metre race, Canadian rowers Hillary Janssens and Caileigh Filmer settled for bronze medals in the women's pairs on Thursday morning in Tokyo.

It is the 10th medal of the Olympics for Canada, all of which have been won by female athletes.

The Canadian rowers, who won the world title in 2018 and bronze in 2019, finished just behind the Russian Olympic Committee pair.

The gold-medal winning New Zealanders, Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler, took the lead from the Canadians at the 1,500-metre mark and never relented. They had set the Olympic and world-leading time earlier in the Olympic regatta, and did not panic after falling behind the hard-charging Canadians, who took the lead early.

Filmer of Victoria and Janssens of Cloverdale, B.C. teamed up in 2018 and found almost immediate success together.

They won their first World Cup event and went on to score the gold medal at the worlds in Bulgaria later that year.

The Olympic medal is the first for each of them.

In the men's pairs A final, Kai Langerfeld and Conlin Mccabe of Brockville, Ont. were just edged by Denmark for a bronze medal, falling .55 seconds behind to finish fourth.

Canada had boats in both lightweight double sculls B finals. The men's team of Patrick Keane of Victoria and Max Lattimer of Ladner, B.C., finished fourth of five boats to wind up 10th overall in the Olympic regatta.

The Norwegians did not start, after capsizing in the semifinal a day before.

The Canadian women's team of Jill Moffatt, from Bethany, Ont., and Jennifer Casson, of Kingston, Ont., finished last and were 12th overall.