Canada’s defending-champion women’s eight rowing team has won a silver medal at the Paris Olympics.
Led by coxswain Kristen Kit and three other returnees from the Tokyo 2021 championship crew, the Canadians covered 2,000 metres in five minutes 58.84 seconds for a silver medal at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in France.
Romania won gold in 5:54.39, with Great Britain (5:59..51) taking bronze.
Canada’s victory in 2021 ended a medal drought dating to the London Games in 2012.
Marnie McBean and the late Kathleen Heddle won Canada’s other Olympic gold in the event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
The Canadian women’s 8 crew clinched a berth for Paris last September with a fifth-place result (6:07.15) at the world championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
Canada found itself in a tight battle with Great Britain for second with 500 metres to go, but were able to hold off their rivals to claim silver.
The team returned four members from the Tokyo Games: Calgary’s Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, Toronto’s Sydney Payne and Avalon Wasteneys of Campbell River, B.C., along with Kit of St. Catharines, Ont.
Abby Dent of Kenora, Ont., Victoria’s Caileigh Filmer, Maya Meschkuleit of Mississauga, Ont., Jessica Sevick of Strathmore, Alta., and Kristina Walker of Wolfe Island, Ont. are the other team members.
Canada qualified for Saturday’s final after finishing second (6:04.81) in Thursday’s repechage.
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