Canada kicked off Olympic rowing action at the Stade Nautique de Vaires-Sur-Marne this morning with the women’s lightweight double duo of Jenny Casson (Kingston, Ontario) and Jill Moffatt (Bethany, Ontario) racing in the third of three heats today. The top two boats advance to semi-finals with the remaining crews progressing to the repechage. Canada blasted off the start line at 5:50am EST, chasing the hometown team from France, Laura Tarantola and Claire Bove.
 
At the 1000m mark, the Kiwis, Shannon Cox and Jackie Kiddle made their move on France, holding onto a narrow lead through to the Olympic finish line with a time of 7:02.25. Moffatt and Casson crossed the line in 3^rd behind France with a time of 7:09.45. Canada will compete in the repechage tomorrow at 5:00am EST time.
 
“It’s the Olympic Games and we don’t treat this like it’s just another race, said Moffatt. “We are not satisfied with our race today but tomorrow’s repechage is a good opportunity to nail things down before the semifinals. We have a lot of confidence overall with all of the work we’ve done at our training camps in the lead-up to Paris.”
 
“We went in with the right mindset but I think the execution let us down,” said Casson. “We need to take it up a notch and I have the confidence we can do that.”
 
The top three boats from the lightweight double repechages will advance to the A/B semifinals on Wednesday.
 
The Canadian women’s eight will also make their regatta debut here in Paris, racing heats at 6:00am EST time. Their heat will include other strong contenders such as Great Britain, Denmark and Australia. The first boat across the line will secure their spot in the Olympic Final. The remaining countries will line up for the repechage on Thursday.

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